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REFERRING TO THE FIGURES INDICATING THEIR RELATIVE POSITIONS 



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Form 


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72 


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73 


Senevolence 


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Firmness 


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ELEMENTS 






PHRENOLOGY. 



BY GEORGE COMBE, 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



SECOND AMERICAN EDITION, 

IMPROVED AND ENLARGED, FROM THE THIRD EDINBURGH, 
BY THE AUTHOR. 



WITH ENGRAVINGS. 



BOSTON: 

MARSH, CAPEM & LYON. 

183 4. 



TRFtn.o 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by 

Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of 

Massachusetts. 



r BOSTON: > 

\ James B. Dow, Printer, > 
1 123 Washington Street. > 

Transfer 
■ftgfneers School y^, 

June 2S,i93i 



/ 



4 3?3 



ADVERTISEMENT 

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



I have been requested to prepare a corrected edi- 
tion of this work for the American press, and with the 
greatest satisfaction have complied with the solicita- 
tion. The United States stand in an enviable posi- 
tion, as a nation. To a territory almost boundless, a 
soil in the highest degree fertile, and every variety of 
climate, are added what no other people on earth en- 
joy, — a constitution entirely free, and social institu- 
tions calculated to encourage the boldest exercise of 
the human understanding. They require only, in ad- 
dition, a sound and practical system of mental philoso- 
phy, to enable them to attain to a moral and intellec- 
tual pre-eminence commensurate with their physical 
and political advantages. Phrenology professes to be 
such a system ; and, as such, I present it to their con- 
sideration. The great discoverer of it has been for sev- 
eral years numbered with the dead ; and to him alone 
belongs the glory of having presented this invaluable 
gift to mankind. His illustrious colleague died lately 
in the arms of American citizens. They did honor to 
him, to themselves, and to their country, by their gen- 



4 ADVERTISEMENT. 

erous conduct towards him while alive, and the rever- 
ence paid to his memory when dead. We, who re- 
main, profess to be only humble disciples, made wise 
by the wisdom of our masters, and shining with a light 
reflected from their brightness. In proclaiming the 
value and importance of their doctrines, therefore, we 
assume no merit to ourselves ; we simply invite others 
to partake of a moral and intellectual banquet which 
we have enjoyed with the highest relish, and found to 
conduce to our happiness and improvement. 

The organs are delineated in the plate according to 
their most general appearances. There are, however, 
slight differences in national heads, which give rise to 
small variations in the lines of demarcation in the plates 
of different phrenologists. By appealing to nature, 
the student will soon learn to discriminate the positions 
and limits of each organ ; and I recommend practice 
as the best means of removing every difficulty. 

My excellent and lamented friend, Dr. Spurzheim, 
no longer lives to hear the expression of my gratitude 
and affection, I can now only revere his memory ; 
and, in paying the highest tribute to his admirable dis- 
positions, exalted talents, and extensive attainments, I 
know that I shall have the heart-felt concurrence of 
every American who enjoyed the pleasure of his per- 
sonal acquaintance. To the best of my knowledge, 
there is no material point of doctrine on which he and 



ADVERTISEMENT. 5 

I differed, except concerning the functions of the or- 
gan No. 3. I continue to entertain the views express- 
ed in my works in regard to it. I may now add, 
without indelicacy, that it was perhaps the only cere- 
bral organ in which the superiority of development lay 
on my side, and that every one understands best the 
functions of those organs which are largest in his own 
brain. It was remarkably small in Dr. Spurzheim, 
and it appeared to me that he never comprehended 
the effect produced by it when large. The point, 
however, is left open for the judgment of all inquirers. 

23 Charlotte Square, i 
Edinburgh, Sept. 1833. j 



l* 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

Many persons desire to know something about Phre- 
nology, who, nevertheless, are not prepared to bestow 
much, either of their time or money, in the pursuit of it. 
There are others, who, fully convinced of its truth and 
importance, wish to possess a manual, to facilitate their 
practice of its doctrines. The present work is intend- 
ed to serve both classes, by conveying a brief but 
comprehensive view of the science at a moderate ex- 
pense. 

A second edition of the Essays on Phrenology will 
immediately be put to press, and in them a detailed 
exposition of the evidence, theory, and application of 
the system will be given. The work will consist of at 
least two volumes octavo, with numerous plates. 

Edinburgh, 8th July, 1824. 



ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

The sale of the First Edition of this work, con- 
sistin'g of 1500 copies, within ten months, affords evi- 
dence that it has met with public approbation. The 
rapid progress of Phrenology has rendered some ad- 
ditions necessary. The present edition, therefore, 
contains the latest discoveries in the science, refer- 
ences to casts which illustrate the organs, and an eluci- 
dation of some points attended with difficulty. 

Edinburgh, 7th May, 1825. 



ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. 

This Edition is printed on a closer type than the 
two which preceded it ; by which means a considera- 
ble addition has been made to the matter of the work, 
without increasing the size or the price. 

Dr. Spurzheim, in his visit to Edinburgh, in 1828, 
demonstrated the anatomy of the brain, and traced out 
the connexion between the organs, in a manner so 
clear and satisfactory, that the basis of his arrange- 
ment of them appeared obviously founded in nature. 
In this edition I have, in consequence, adopted his 
classification. 

In the course of numerous conversations, he kindly 
afforded me an opportunity of discussing with him the 
few points of doctrine on which we had previously 
differed. With the exception of Concentrativeness, 
on which my opinions remain unchanged, he satisfied 
me that he was, in other particulars, in the right; and 
I have adopted his views accordingly. 

Dr. Spurzheim proposed some modifications of 
the lines marking out the organs on the bust ; but as 
I have not yet had time sufficient to compare the pro- 
posed alterations with nature, I retain the old markings 
till farther consideration. 

I gratefully acknowledge the uniform kindness with 
which Dr. Spurzheim has, in every instance, met my 
inquiries, and the highly philosophical liberality with 
which he has permitted me to benefit by his discov- 
eries. 

Edinburgh, 12th July, 1629. 



CONTENTS. 



Introductory Observations 13 

History of Discovery 13 

The Brain the Organ of the Mind 20 

Principles of Phrenology 23 

Skull 24 

Frontal Sinus 25 

Size, cateris paribus, a measure of power 26 

Definition of an Organ 30 

of a Faculty 31 

Organs double 32 

How to measure their size 32 

Circumstances which determine whether a faculty is 
primitive 34 

Order L— FEELINGS 37 

Genus I. — Propensities. 

Noo 1, Aniativeness 37 

2. Philoprogenitiveness 40 

3. Concentrativeness 41 

4. Adhesiveness. . . * 44 

5. Combativeness 45 

6. Destructiveness 46 

Alimentiveness, or Organ of the Appetite for 

Food 49 

Organ of the Love of Life 50 



10 CONTENTS. 

7. Secretiveness 51 

8. Acquisitiveness 53 

9. Construct: veness J 55 

Genus II. — Sentiments 59 

10. Self- Esteem 59 

11. Love of Approbation 62 

12. Cautiousness. . . 65 

13. Benevolence 66 

14. Veneration 69 

15. Firmness .71 

16. Conscientiousness 72 

17. Hope 76 

18. Wonder 77 

19. Ideality 79 

20. Wit or Mh tl. fulness 81 

21. Imitation 82 

Order IL— INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES 84 

Genus I. External Senses 84 

Feeling or Touch t 87 

Taste. . > 88 

Smell .88 

Hearing 89 

Sight '. . ..89 

Genus II. — Perceptive Faculties 91 

22. Individuality 91 

23. Form 93 

24. Size 93 

25. Weight or Resistance 94 

26. Coloring 95 

27. Locality 97 



CONTENTS. 11 

28. Number 98 

29. Order 99 

30. Eventuality 101 

31 . Time 103 

32. Tune 104 

33. Language 105 

Functions of Individuality, distinct from 

those of the other Knowing Faculties .108 

Genus III. — Reflecting Faculties Ill 

34. Comparison Ill 

35. Causality 114 

Adaptation of the External World to the 

Intellectual Faculties of Man 116 

Modes of Activity of the Faculties 118 

Of the Propensities and Sentiments 118 

Of the Knowing and Reflecting Faculties ' 121 

Perception 122 

Memory 122 

Conception or Imagination 123 

Judgment 124 

Attention 125 

Association 125 

Pleasure and Pain 131 

Passion * 131 

Sympathy 132 

Habit 134 

Taste 135 

Effect3 of Size and Activity in the Organs, and Practi- 
cal Directions for observing Development , 137 

Temperaments 139 



12 CONTENTS. 

Table of Measurement by Calippers. . . ♦ , 147 

Combinations in Size 159 

Combinations in Activity 169 

On Materialism , .175 

Objections to Phrenology considered * * . 184 

Different Classifications of Organs t 196 

Description of Craniometer 203 



ELEMENTS 



PHRENOLOGY. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

Phrenology (derived from cpgyv mind, and Xoyog dis- 
course) treats of the faculties of the Human Mind, 
and of the organs by means of which they manifest 
themselves ; but it does not enable us to predict ac- 
tions. 

Dr. Gall, a physician of Vienna, afterwards resi- 
dent in Paris, was the founder of the system. He 
was born at Tiefenbrun, in Suabia, on the 9th March, 
1757, and died at Paris on 22d August 1828. From 
an early age he was given to observation, and was 
struck with the fact, that each of his brothers and sis- 
ters, companions in play, and schoolfellows, was dis- 
tinguished from other individuals by some peculiarity of 
talent or disposition. Some of his schoolmates were 
characterized by the beauty of their penmanship, some 
by their success in arithmetic, and others by their tal- 
ent for acquiring a knowledge of natural history, or 
languages. The compositions of one were remarkable 
for elegance ; the style of another was stiff and dry ; 
while a third connected his reasonings in the closest 
manner, and clothed his argument in the most forcible 
language. Their dispositions were equally different ; 
and this diversity appeared also to determine the di- 
2 



14 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

rection of their partialities and aversions. Not a few 
of them manifested a capacity for employments which 
they were not taught ; they cut figures in wood, or 
delineated them on paper ; some devoted their leisure 
to painting, or the culture of a garden ; while their 
comrades abandoned themselves to noisy games, or 
traversed the woods to gather flowers, seek for bird- 
nests, or catch butterflies. In this manner, each indi- 
vidual presented a character peculiar to himself, and 
Dr. Gall never observed that the individual, who, 
in one year, had displayed selfish or knavish disposi- 
tions, became, in the next, a good and faithful friend* 

The scholars with whom Dr. Gall had the greatest 
difficulty in competing, were those who learned by 
heart with great facility ; and such individuals frequent- 
ly gained from him by their repetitions the places which 
he had obtained by the merit of his original composi- 
tions. 

Some years afterwards, having changed his place of 
residence, he still met individuals endowed with an 
equally great talent of learning to repeat. He then 
observed, that his schoolfellows, so gifted, possessed 
prominent eyes, and recollected, that his rivals in the 
first school had been distinguished by the same pecu- 
liarity. When he entered the University he directed 
his attention, from the first, to the students whose eyes 
were of this description, and found that they excelled in 
getting rapidly by heart, and giving correct recitations, 
although many of them were by no means distinguished 
in point of general talent. This observation was re- 
cognized also by the other students in the classes ; and, 
although the connexion betwixt the talent and the ex- 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 15 

ternal sign was not at this time established upon such 
complete evidence as is requisite for a philosophical 
conclusion, Dr. Gall could not believe that the coinci- 
dence of the two circumstances was entirely acciden- 
tal. From that period, therefore, he suspected that 
they stood in an important relation to each other. Af- 
ter much reflection, he conceived, that if Memory for 
words was indicated by an external sign, the same 
might be the case with other intellectual powers 5 and 
afterwards, all individuals distinguished by any remark- 
able faculty became the objects of his attention. By 
degrees, he conceived himself to have found external 
characteristics, which indicated a decided disposition 
for Painting, Music, and the Mechanical Arts. He 
became acquainted also with some individuals remark- 
able for the decision of their character, and he observ- 
ed a particular part of their heads to be very largely 
developed. This fact first suggested to him the idea 
of looking to the head for signs of the Moral Senti- 
ments. But in making these observations, he never 
conceived, for.a moment, that the skull was the cause 
of the different talents, as has been erroneously repre- 
sented ; for, from the first, he referred the influence, 
whatever it was, to the Brain. 

In following out, by observation, the principle which 
accident had thus suggested, he for some time en- 
countered difficulties of the greatest magnitude. Hith- 
erto he had been altogether ignorant of the opinions 
of Physiologists touching the brain, and of Metaphysi- 
cians respecting the mental faculties. He had simply 
observed nature. When, however, he began to en- 
large his knowledge of books, he found the most extra* 



16 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

ordinary conflict of opinions every where prevailing; 
which, for the moment, made him hesitate about the 
correctness of his own observations. He found that 
the moral sentiments had, by an almost general con- 
sent, been consigned to the thoracic and abdominal 
viscera; and that while Pythagoras, Plato, Galen, 
Haller, and some other Physiologists, placed the 
sentient soul or intellectual faculties in the brain, Aris- 
totle placed it in the heart, Van Helmont in the 
stomach, Des Cartes and his followers in the pineal 
gland, and Drelincourt and others in the cerebel- 
lum. 

He observed also, that a great number of Philoso- 
phers and Physiologists asserted, that all men are born 
with equal mental faculties ; and that the differences 
observable among them are owing either to education, 
or to the accidental circumstances in which they are 
placed. If all difference were accidental, he inferred 
that there could be no natural signs of predominating 
faculties, and consequently that the project of learning, 
by observation, to distinguish the functions of the dif- 
ferent portions of the brain, must be hopeless. This 
difficulty he combated, by the reflection, that his 
brothers, sisters, and schoolfellows, had all received 
very nearly the same education, but that he had still 
observed each of them unfolding a distinct character, 
over w 7 hich circumstances appeared to exert only a 
limited control. He observed also, that not unfre^ 
quently those, whose education had been conducted 
with the greatest care, and on whom the labors of 
teachers had been most freely lavished, remained far 
behind their companions in attainments. - Often, 5 says 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 17 

Dr. Gall, c we were accused of want of will, or de- 
ficiency in zeal ; but many of us could not, even with 
the most ardent desire, followed out by the most ob- 
stinate efforts, attain in some pursuits even to medioc- 
rity ; while in some other points, some of us surpassed 
our schoolfellows without an effort, and almost, it 
might be said, without perceiving it ourselves. But, in 
point of fact, our masters did not appear to attach 
much faith to the system which taught the equality of 
mental faculties ; for they thought themselves entitled 
to exact more from one scholar, and less from anoth- 
er. They spoke frequently of natural gifts, or of the 
gifts of God, and consoled their pupils in the words of 
the gospel, by assuring them that each would be re- 
quired to render an account, only in proportion to the 
gifts which he had received.' * 

Being convinced by these facts, that there is a nat- 
ural and constitutional diversity of talents and [disposi- 
tions, he encountered in books still another obstacle to 
his success in determining the external signs of the 
mental powers. He found that, instead of faculties 
for languages, drawing, distinguishing places, music, 
and mechanical arts, corresponding to the different tal- 
ents which he had observed in his schoolfellows, the 
metaphysicians spoke only of general powers, such as 
perception, conception, memory, imagination, and 
judgment ; and when he endeavored to discover exter- 
nal signs in the head, corresponding to these general 
faculties, or to determine the correctness of the physio- 

* Preface by-Dr. Gall to the ' Anatomie, &c. du Cerveau,' 
from which other facts in this work are taken. 

2* 



18 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

logical doctrines taught by the authors already men- 
tioned, regarding the seat of the mind, he found per- 
plexities without end, and difficulties insurmountable. 

Dr. Gall, therefore, abandoning every theory and 
preconceived opinion, gave himself up entirely to the 
observation of nature. Being a friend to Dr. Nord, 
Physician to a Lunatic Asylum in Vienna, he had op- 
portunities, of which he availed himself, of making ob- 
servations on the insane. He visited prisons, and re- 
sorted to schools ; he was introduced to the courts of 
Princes, to Colleges, and the seats of Justice ; and 
wherever he heard of an individual distinguished in 
any particular way, either by remarkable endowment 
or deficiency 1 he observed and studied the develop- 
ment of his head. In this manner, by an almost im- 
perceptible induction, he conceived himself warranted 
in believing, that particular mental powers are indi- 
cated by particular configurations of the head. 

Hitherto he had resorted only to Physiognomical 
indications, as a means of discovering the functions of 
the brain. On reflection, however, he was convinced 
that Physiology is imperfect when separated from An- 
atomy. Having observed a woman of fifty-four years 
of age, who had been afflicted with hydrocephalus 
from her youth, and who, with a body a little shrunk, 
possessed a mind as active and intelligent as that of 
other individuals of her class, Dr. Gall declared his 
conviction, that the structure of the brain must be dif- 
ferent from what was generally conceived, — a remark 
which Tulpius also had made, on observing a hydro- 
cephalic patient who manifested the mental faculties. 
He therefore felt the necessity of making anatomical 
researches into the structure of the brain. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 19 

In every instance, when an individual, whose head 
he had observed while alive, happened to die, he used 
every means to be permitted to examine the brain, and 
frequently did so ; and found, as a general fact, tbat, 
on removal of the skull, the brain, covered by the dura 
mater, presented a form corresponding to that which 
the skull had exhibited in life. 

The successive steps by which Dr. Gall proceeded 
in his discoveries, are particularly deserving of atten- 
tion. He did not, as many have imagined, first dissect 
the brain, and pretend by that means to discover the 
seats of the mental powers; neither did he, as others 
have conceived, first map out the skull into various 
compartments, and assign a faculty to each, according 
as his imagination led him to conceive the place appro- 
priate to the power. On the contrary, he first observ- 
ed a concomitance betwixt particular talents and dis- 
positions, and particular forms of the head ; he next 
ascertained, by removal of the skull, that the figure 
and size of the brain are indicated by these external 
forms ; and it was only after these facts were determin- 
ed, that the brain w r as minutely dissected, and light 
thrown upon its structure. 

At Vienna, in 1796, Dr. Gall for the first time de- 
livered lectures on his system. 

In 1800, Dr. J. G. Spurzheim * began the study 
of Phrenology under him, having in that year assist- 
ed, for the first time, at one of his lectures. In 1804 
he was associated with him in his labors ; and after 

* Dr. Spurzheim was born at Longuich, near Treves on the 
Moselle, 31st December, 1776, and died at Boston, United States, 
on the 10th November, 1832. 



XV INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

that period he not only added many valuable discover- 
ries to those of Dr. Gall in the anatomy and physiol- 
ogy of the brain, but formed the truths, brought to light 
by their joint observations, into a beautiful and inter- 
esting system of mental philosophy. In Britain we 
are chiefly indebted to his personal exertions and print- 
ed works for a knowledge of the science. 

An elementary view of the result of their labors 
will be found in the following work. 

The mind and body are intimately connected ; and 
it is impossible for the mind to remain unaffected in 
certain states of the corporeal system. But the brain, 
and not the whole body, is the immediate organ of 
mind. Common observation, and the fact that most 
of the older writers, Shakspeare, for instance, used 
the terms Mind and Brain almost synonymously, au- 
thorize this conclusion. Physiologists universally treat 
of the brain as the material instrument on which the 
manifestations of mind depend. Common feeling lo- 
calizes the mind in the head. The nerves which con- 
vey sensations to the mind are all intimately connected 
with the head. And if the brain is not the organ of mind, 
}t remains a strange anomaly of curious and exquisite 
structure, carefully and admirably protected by the 
Creator, yet altogether without use. Nearly every 
other part of the body has already a known function 
connected with it. 

The brain, then, being the organ of mind, the next 
inquiry is, whether it is a single part, manifesting the 
whole mind equally, or an aggregate of parts, each 
subserving a particular mental power ? All the phe- 
nomena are at variance with the former, and in harmo- 
ny with the latter, or phrenological view. The brain 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 21 

must be a combination of parts performing distinct 
functions: 1st, Because all the powers of the mind 
are not equally developed at the same time ; but ap- 
pear in succession at different periods of life, — just 
in the same way as in some animals the sense of sight 
appears sooner than the sense of hearing, each de- 
pending on the state of its own organ. Different parts 
of the brain are observed to be developed in succession, 
those most early developed subserving those mental 
powers which appear first. 2d, Because genius is 
generally partial. Madam Catalini, for example, 
is not equally gifted with a natural talent for mathe- 
matics, or metaphysics, as for music. A man is often 
an excellent painter, although no musician ; or a clever 
and acute observer, without being a profound reasoner. 
This is parallel to a person seeing who cannot hear, a 
fact explained by the organs of vision and hearing be- 
ing distinct. If the same part of the brain manifested 
the faculty of color, of music, and of reasoning, these 
powers would, of necessity, be equally strong or weak, 
which is contrary to daily experience. 3d, Because, 
in dreaming, one or more faculties are awake while 
others are asleep, and if all acted through the instru- 
mentality of one and the same organ, they could not 
possibly be in opposite states at the same time. 4th, 
Because, in partial idiocy and partial insanity, some 
faculties are greatly deficient or diseased, while others 
are powerful and healthy in their operations ; which 
could not be, if all depended on one organ. 5th, Be- 
cause partial injuries of the brain do not equally affect 
all the mental powers ; which they would do, if the 
organ of mind were single. Often parts of the brain 
are wounded without impeding the intellect, while the 



22 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

temper and dispositions are evidently disturbed. This 
can arise only from different parts subserving different 
mental powers. 

These considerations lead so irresistibly to the infer- 
ence of a plurality of mental organs in the brain, that, 
to use Fodere's remarkable phrase, i they had been 
adverted to by almost all anatomists from the days of 
Galen downwards, and even by the great Haller, 
ivho felt a necessity (quieprouvait le besoin) of assign- 
ing a]distinct function to different parts of the brain.' — 
Pinel also broadly states the impossibility of reconcil- 
ing such facts with the notion of a single organ of mind. 
Dolci and other writers, acting under this conviction, 
attempted very early to assign functions to particular 
regions of the brain, which they fancied to be fit for 
the purpose ; and a drawing of a head so divided in 
1560, will be found in Dolci's work, and in the Phre- 
nological Journal. They failed in their attempt, in 
consequence of taking their own conceptions of fitness^ 
and not actual observation, for their guide. 

Dr. Gall's two fundamental propositions of the brain 
being the material instrument of mind, and of each of 
its parts being the instrument of a distinct and inde- 
pendent mental faculty, so far from being mere fictions 
of his own fancy, are thus not new, but, on the contra- 
ry, have long been entertained by the soundest medi- 
cal philosophers. Their truth is borne out by univer- 
sal analogy, which shows that every distinct function 
is connected with a distinct organ. Thus there are 
distinct nerves for seeing, hearing, tasting and smelling ; 
and latterly it has been demonstrated, by Bell and 
Magendie, that even the nerves of feeling and motion 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 23 

are distinct and independent, although undistinguisha- 
bly blended in one common sheath in their course to 
the parts on which they are ramified. 

Dr. Gall's method of investigation is free from cer- 
tain insuperable difficulties, which have impeded the 
progress of other philosophers in establishing a true 
theory of mind. 

1st, Dissection alone does not reveal the functions 
of any organ. No person, by dissecting the optic 
nerve, could predicate that its office is to minister to 
vision ; or, by dissecting the tongue, could discover 
that it is the organ of taste. Anatomists, therefore, 
could not, by the mere practice of their art, discover 
the functions of the brain. 

2dly, The mind is not conscious of acting by means 
of organs ; and hence metaphysical philosophers, who, 
in studying the mental phenomena, confined themselves 
to reflection on consciousness, could not discover the 
material instruments by means of which the mind per- 
forms its operations in this life, and communicates with 
the external world. Hence, prior to the time of Dr. 
Gall, ignorance of the uses of the brain was universal- 
ly admitted. In proof, the writings of Dr. Roget and 
Dr. Thomas BroWn may be consulted. 

Dr. Gall succeeded by comparing the size of cere- 
bral parts with the energy of mental manifestations. 
No one, however anxious, could, by feigning, write 
poetry, compose music, nor excel in reasoning or in 
mathematics, if he did not naturally possess the requi- 
site talents. Therefore different talents may be dis- 
criminated ; while the relative size of different parts of 
the brain also may be distinguished. 



24 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

All authors agree that the brain gives the form to 
the skull. Cuvier, Monro, Blumenbach, Lawrence, 
and many other anatomists state this. 

These positions being granted, the possibility of 
Gall's discoveries becomes evident, and the question 
resolves itself into one of accuracy of observation, which 
can be determined only by actual experience. 

It has been objected that the outer surface of the 
skull does not accurately represent the form of the in- 
ner. This objection is unfounded. After the middle 
period of life, the brain participates in the general de- 
cay which then begins to take place, and the inner 
surface of the skull sometimes follows the shrinking of 
the brain faster than the outer surface, and hence in- 
equalities in thickness arise. In disease, the same 
thing happens. At other times, the skull becomes 
thinner in old age, and thus it cannot be trusted as an 
index of the form of the brain. In infancy, the brain 
and skull are imperfectly developed. For these rea- 
sons, phrenologists seek for demonstrative evidence in 
the observation of healthy individuals not beyond the 
middle period of life. In which circumstances, the 
divergence from parallelism does not exceed one- 
eighth of an inch, while the differences of size of brain 
in particular parts of heads, of otherwise equal general 
dimensions, extend to one inch and a quarter, as may 
be seen by contrasting the heads of Mr. Joseph Hume 
and Dr. Chalmers in the region of ideality. This, 
therefore, allows ample scope for phrenological obser- 
vation, independent of the utmost possible healthy di- 
vergence of the surfaces of the skull. In proof of the 
prodigious differences of size of cerebral parts we may 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 25 

particularly contrast the small head of an idiot with 
the large head of Franklin, the skull of Raphael 
with that of a New Hollander ; that of General Wurm- 
ser with that of a H indoo, — all of which show a striking 
contrast in the size of particular regions of the head. 
To illustrate this still more clearly ; Anne Ormerod's 
very small organ of Tune may be compared with the 
large development of that of Mr. Weiss, the celebrat- 
ed performer on the flute. She is insensible to music. 
The frontal sinus also has been urged as an insu- 
perable obstacle to ascertaining the size of the cerebral 
organs in the head, but with no success. It is an open- 
ing between the inner and outer surfaces of the fron- 
tal bone, occurring at the top of the nose. It does not 
in general appear over any phrenological organ before 
the age of twelve ; but after that, it often extends along 
the spaces marked 22, 23, 24, 25 on the Plate ; and 
throws a degree of uncertainty over the development 
of the organs indicated by these numbers. In old age 
and disease it frequently becomes much larger, extend- 
ing over a variety of other organs ; but these cases 
form exceptions to the general rule, and are not proper 
for observation. In other parts of the skull marked 
as pointing out the situation of organs, the outer and 
inner surfaces are either parallel, or the departure 
from perfect parallelism, where it occurs, is limited to 
a line, T yh or £th of an inch according to the age and 
health of the individual. The difference in develop- 
ment between a large and a small organ of the propen- 
sities and some of the sentiments, amounts to an inch 
and upwards ; and to a quarter of an inch in the organs 
of intellect, which are naturally smaller than the others. 
3 



26 INTRODUCTORY OBSERTATIONS. 

The sinus, as already mentioned, does not appear, in 
general, before the age of twelve, while some of the 
organs near it are most energetic before that age (In- 
dividuality for instance,) and up to that time, therefore, 
there is no difficulty. After that age, till middle life, 
the sinus is common, but seldom so large as to mislead ; 
but even then, there are cases which present a flatness 
or depression at the outer surface, indicating deficien- 
cy of brain behind, and a corresponding weakness of 
the concomitant mental power. If a sinus is present 
in such a case, it must extend inward, and make the 
brain actually smaller than phrenologists infer it to be, so 
that this would correspond still more slrongly with the 
deficiency of mental power.. The force of this negative 
evidence is in general altogether overlooked ; but it is 
really strong. If a single instance could be produced 
of vigorous manifestation of a mental faculty the organ 
of which is deficient, I am ready to give up at once any 
organ so disproved. The sinus puts a difficulty in the 
way of applying phrenology to every individual case, 
but it does not establish the impossibility of discovering 
the function even of the organs affected by it. 

The third fundamental principle of phrenology is, 
that the power of mental manifestation is invariably in 
proportion, cater is paribus, to the size of the cerebral 
or^an. This has been assailed by wit, ridicule, and 
argument, but never met fairly. The indispensable 
condition of all other circumstances being equal, has 
been sedulously kept out of view; and Mr. Jeffrey 
himself has gone so far as to say that the phrenologists 
represent absolute size as a measure of absolute power. 
But the phrenological proposition is founded on nature 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 27 

and on reason, and is supported by universal analogy. 
Bones, all other conditions being the same, are strong 
in proportion to their size. Muscles are the same. 
Muscular action or motion requires a nerve to give the 
impulse, and a muscle to act or obey. Now, a strong 
impulse and a moderate motor, or a weaker impulse 
and greater motor, may produce equal results. A 
moderately muscular man, under the powerful influ- 
ence of rage or delirium, may show as great power of 
muscular action, as a much more muscular man could 
do, when not so excited. But here the condition of 
cceteris paribus does not hold, that if we excite the 
latter individual equally highly, he will excel the for- 
mer in exact proportion to his greater size of muscle. 

In nature, this modification is beautifully exempli- 
fied. Fishes live in a medium of a specific gravity 
almost the same as that of their bodies. They swim 
naturally from their own lightness. Here, then, in- 
creased bulk does not add to their relative weight, so 
as to impede or injure them, and in them accordingly- 
great muscular power is connected with very large 
muscles and small nerves. Birds, on the other hand, 
like the eagle, rise high in a medium much lighter 
than their own bodies ; and increase of muscular size 
would add greatly to their own weight, and prevent 
them rising at all into the air ; and accordingly great 
muscular power is conferred on them by means of ve- 
ry large nerves and moderately sized muscles. Still 
showing the proportion of power to size as a law of 
nature. 

In conformity with the same principle, Desmoulins 
states, that the nerves of sensation going to the arm 



28 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

and hand (the chief instruments of touch,) are in man 
five times greater in volume and surface than those go- 
ing to the muscles. Whereas, in the horse and other 
animals with imperfect touch, and great muscular 
Strength, the proportions are so completely reversed 
that the mass of the muscular nerves exceeds that of 
the sensitive nerves by one third. Again, in the case 
of the five senses, properly so called, the size of the 
nerves is always proportioned, cceteris paribus, to the 
intensity of the function. Monro, Blumenbach, 
Cuvier, and Magendie state this proportion. In 
fishes, Desmoulins found the auditory nerve twenty 
times larger in proportion to the size of the animal than 
in mammalia and birds — water being less fit than air 
for transmission of sound. Those animals which en- 
joy an acute sense of smell are always remarkable for 
great size of olfactory nerves. For instance, the bear, 
the sheep, the clog, and the cow, have an immense 
surface covered with nervous fibrils. In like manner, 
large nerves of taste uniformly attend superiority in 
that function. And in vision the same proportion be- 
tween size of organ and intensity of function is most 
remarkably displayed. In eagles, whose sight is very 
keen, the ganglions, whence the optic nerves arise, are 
equal in size to one-third of the whole brain ; whereas, 
in the owl, which sees imperfectly, they are not equal 
to more than one-twentieth. In birds of prey, the 
nervous expansion of the retina in the eye is curiously 
folded and doubled upon itself, for the sole purpose of 
affording room for a large nerve in a small space, and 
these folds disappear when these birds are confined 
for a length of time to near vision, as in a, cage ; thus 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS, 29 

demonstrating the connexion of size of organ and pow- 
er of function. 

The brain forms no exception to this law ; and 
most physiologists admit that the mental manifestations 
are vigorous in proportion to its size, all other things 
being equal. Cuvier and Magendie are no mean 
authorities. In speaking of the cerebral lobes being 
the place i where all the sensations take a distinct form, 
and leave durable impressions,' Cuvier adds, that 
*■ comparative anatomy offers another confirmation of 
the constant proportion between the size of these lobes 
and the degree of intelligence of animals,' thus admit- 
ting the influence of size of the cerebral organs as dis- 
tinctly as Dr. Gall himself. And it may further be 
remarked, that, in this instance, Cuvier speaks the 
sentiments of Portal, Berthollet, Pinel, and 
Dumeril, who, along with himself formed a commis- 
sion, in 1822, to examine and report upon the experi- 
ments of Flourens. In fact, all former attempts to 
discover the uses of the brain assume this principle as 
self-evident. Camper's facial angle was invented to 
show, that the nearer the angle approaches to a right 
angle, or, in other words, the larger and more promi- 
nent the forehead, the greater will be the intellectual 
powers. The method founded on comparing the ab- 
solute size of the brain in different animals as an in- 
dex of their capacities, rests on the same assumption. 
Those inquirers also, who estimated the size of the 
brain relatively to the mass of the nerves, and relative- 
ly to the size of the spinal marrow, and relatively to 
the size of the cerebellum, all proceeded on the prin- 
3* 



30 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

ciple that the energy of function was uniformly propor- 
tioned, ceteris paribus, to size of organ. 

The principle of size being a measure of power, 
which is thus almost universally admitted in regard to 
the whole brain, is equally accurate when applied to 
its component parts ; at least the truth of it is a fair and 
reasonable subject of philosophical inquiry ; and, on 
the information obtained by observation, the phrenolo- 
gists rest their whole system. 

The phrenologist, therefore, compares cerebral de- 
velopment with the manifestations of mental power, 
for the purpose of discovering the functions of the 
brain, and the organs of the mind ; and this method 
of investigation is conformable to the principles of the 
inductive philosophy, and free from the objections at- 
tending the anatomical and metaphysical modes of re- 
search. 

A mental organ is a material instrument, by means 
of which the mind, in this life, enters into particular 
states, active and passive. 

The mind is regarded as simple, and its substance 
or essence is unknown. It is furnished by nature, 
with highly interesting susceptibilities, and a vast ap- 
paratus of mental organs, for enabling it to manifest its 
energies, and enter into different states. Thus, when 
aided by optic and auditory nerves, the mind sees and 
hears ; when assisted by an organ of Cautiousness, it 
feels fear ; by an organ of Causality, it reasons. Its 
power of seeing depends on the perfection of the op- 
tic nerves ; and, in like manner, its power of experi- 
encing the emotion of beauty is in proportion to the 
perfection of the organ of Ideality. The optic nerve, 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 31 

when stimulated by light, induces the active state, 
called Seeing, in the mind ; and the organ of Benevo- 
lence, excited by an object in distress, produces the 
mental state, called Compassion. 

States of mind are either simple or complex. A 
simple state results from the action of a single organ 
on the mind ; Seeing is a simple state arising from the 
activity of the optic nerves. Complex states are pro- 
duced when the mind is acted upon by several organs 
at the same time. Thus, suppose that an insult is of- 
fered to an individual in an august assembly, Self-Es- 
teem will produce the feeling of offended dignity ; 
and Destructiveness will give the desire of revenge ; 
Veneration, however, may call up the emotion of res- 
pect or awe for the personages present ; while Cau- 
tiousness, and Love of Approbation, may give rise to 
the fear of offending them ; all which contending emo- 
tions may coexist. Hence, the mind, simple in itself, 
may, by means of a plurality of organs, exist in a state 
of complex relation to other objects. # 

The term Faculty is retained as a convenient ex- 
pression for the particular state into which the mind 
enters, when influenced by particular organs. It is ap- 
plied to the feelings as well as to the intellect : thus, 
-the faculty of Benevolence means every mode of be- 
nevolent feeling induced by means of the organ of Be- 
nevolence. 

The following points are conceived to be established 
by an extensive induction of facts. 

1st, The mind manifests a plurality of faculties. 

2e%, The brain is the material instrument by means 

* This doctrine was first clearly elucidated by the Rev. David 
Welsh, in his excellent Life of the late Dr. Thomas Brown, 
Note N. p. 519. 



32 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

of which the mind acts, and is acted upon ; and it is a 
congeries of organs. - 

Sdly, The brain consists of two hemispheres, sepa- 
rated by a strong membrane called the Falciform pro- 
cess of the dura mater. Each hemisphere is an aggre- 
gate of parts, and each part serves to manifest a par- 
ticular mental faculty. The two hemispheres, without 
being absolutely symmetrical, in general correspond in 
form and functions ; and hence there are two organs 
for each faculty, one situate in each hemisphere. The 
cerebellum in man is situate below the brain. A thick 
membrane, named the Tentorium, separates the two ; 
but they are both connected with the medulla oblon- 
gata, and through it with each other. 

Each organ is understood to extend from the me- 
dulla oblongata, or top of the spinal marrow, to the 
surface of the brain or cerebellum ; and every individ- 
ual possesses all the organs in a greater or less degree. 

4thly, The power with which each faculty is capable 
of manifesting itself (other conditions being equal,) 
bears a proportion to the size of its organs. Power 
and activity are distinguishable. Size appears to be 
essentia] to power ; for a very energetic mind and a 
very small brain are never found concomitant. An 
error is frequently committed in supposing that abso- 
lute size, or size independent of health, constitution, 
and exercise, is a measure of power ; but phrenolo- 
gists do not hold this doctrine. Further details will 
be entered into in a subsequent part of the work. 

The size of an organ is estimated by its length and 
its breadth. Its length is measured by the distance 
from the medulla oblongata, or top of the spinal mar- 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 33 

row, to the outer surface of the brain. A line drawn 
through the head, from the opening of one ear to that 
of the other, would, in the middle, pass close to, but a 
little before, the medulla oblongata ; hence the length 
of an organ is measured from the line of the ear to the 
circumference. Its breadth is indicated by its expan- 
sion at the surface. The student should observe the 
size, and not the mere prominence of the organs. An 
organ may be likened to an inverted cone, with its 
apex in the medulla, and its base at the surface of the 
brain ; the broader the base and longer the distance 
betwixt it and the apex, the greater will be the size, 
or the quantity of matter which it will contain. I do 
not say that the organs may be seen lying separately 
like so many cones. This is a mere illustration of the 
mode in which their size is to be estimated. Their 
peripheral expansion, and also the medulla oblongata 
may be estimated by touch and sight. 

There are parts at the base of the brain, in the mid- 
dle and posterior regions, the size of which cannot be 
discovered during life, and whose functions, in conse- 
quence, are still unknown. From analogy, and some 
pathological facts, they are supposed to be the organs 
of the sensations of hunger and thirst, heat and cold, 
and of some other mental affections, for which cerebral 
organs have not been discovered ; but demonstrative 
evidence to this effect being wanting, this conjecture 
is merely stated to incite to farther investigation. 

The Phrenologists consider Man by himself, and 
also compare him with other animals. When the low- 
er animals manifest the same propensities and feelings 
as those displayed by man, the faculties which produce 



34 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

them are held to be common to both. A faculty is 
admitted to be primitive, 

1. Which exists in one kind of animals, and not in 
another ; 

2. Which varies in the two sexes of the same spe- 
cies ; 

3. Which is proportionate to the other faculties of 
the same individual ; 

4. Which does not manifest itself simultaneously 
with the other faculties ; that is, which appears and 
disappears earlier or later in life than other faculties ; 

5. Which may act or rest singly ; 

6. Which is propagated in a distinct manner from 
parents to children ; and, 

7. Which may singly preserve its proper state of 
health or disease. 

The history of the discovery of each faculty and its 
organs is stated in Dr. Gall's 4to work in 4 vols., en- 
titled i Physiologie du Cerveau,' and some of the evi- 
dence on which each is admitted is also there brought 
forward. Dr. Sfurzheim's work, entitled, 'The 
New Physiognomical System,' also contains many 
facts ; and more cases will be found in the Transac- 
tions of the Phrenological Society, and in the Phreno- 
logical Journal. It is impossible to repeat these in so 
limited a work as the present. The reader is there- 
fore respectfully informed, that I do not here state the 
evidence on which Phrenology is founded : I beg to 
refer him to the sources of information now alluded to, 
and to Nature, which is always within his reach ; for 
self-conviction can be obtained only by self-observa- 
tion. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 35 

When the two organs of a faculty are situated im- 
mediately on the sides of the middle line separating the 
hemispheres, they are included in one space on the 
busts and plates. To save circumlocution, the ex- 
pression * organ ' of a faculty will be frequently used, 
but both organs are thereby meant. 



(37) 



Order!. — FEELINGS. 

Genus I. — Propensities. 

The faculties falling under this genus do not form 
ideas ; their sole function is to produce a propensity of 
a specific kind. These faculties are common to Man 
with Animals. 



1. AMATIVENESS. 

The cerebellum is the organ of this propensity; it 
is situated between and below the mastoid process on 
each side, and the projecting point in the middle of 
the transverse ridge of the occipital bone. It is sepa- 
rated from the brain by a strong membrane, called the 
Tentorium ; but it is connected with the medulla ob- 
longata, from which the brain arises. There is nearly 
half an inch of space between the cerebellum and the 
brain, at the line of insertion of the tentorium into the 
skull. The size of the cerebellum is indicated, during 
life, by the thickness of the neck at these parts ; or by 
the lobes of the cerebellum projecting downwards, 
which may be felt by pressing the hand against the 
muscles of the neck. The cast of the skull of Raphael, 
affords an example of the latter form. The faculty 
4 



38 AMATIVENESS. 

give rise to the sexual feeling. In new-born children, 
the cerebellum is the least developed of all the cere- 
bral parts. It is to the brain as one to thirteen, or 
fifteen, and in adults as one to six, seven, or eight. 
It attains its full size from eighteen to twenty-six. In 
females, in general, it is less in proportion to the brain 
than in males ; but in some females it may be found 
larger in proportion to the brain than in males in gene- 
ral. In old age it frequently diminishes. There is no 
constant proportion betwixt the brain and the cerebel- 
lum in all individuals, just as there is no invariable pro- 
portion betwixt the feeling and the other powers of 
the mind. Sometimes, however, the cerebellum is • 
largely developed before the age of puberty. This 
was the case in a child of three years of age, in a boy 
of five, and in one of twelve , and they all manifested 
the feeling strongly. In the cast of the skull of Dr» 
Hette, sold in the shops, the development is small, 
and the feeling corresponded. In the casts of Mitch- 
ell, Dean, and Raphael, it is very large, and the 
manifestations were in proportion. Farther evidence 
of the functions of this organ will be found in Dr. 
Gall's ' Physiologie du Cerveau; 5 and several cases 
are mentioned in the following works, viz. 'Journal of 
Pathological Observations kept at the Hospital of the 
E'cole de Medecme, No. 108, 15th July, 1817,' case 
of Jean Michel Brigaud ; c Journal of the Hotel Dieu,' 
case of Florat, 19th March, 1819, and of a woman, 
11th November, 1818; ' Wepferus, Historic apo- 
plecticorum,' edit. 1724, page 487; 'Philosophical 
Transactions,' No. 228, case by Dr. Tyson ; s Me- 
moires de Chirurgie Militaire, et Campagnes,' by Bar- 



AMATIVENESS. 39 

on Larrey, vol. iii. p. 262, vol. ii. p. 150 ; ' Serres 
on Apoplexy ; ' 'Riciierand's Elements of Physiolo- 
gy/ pp. 379, 380; ' Kerrison's Translation.' 

M. Flourens, a physiologist of Paris, has lately 
inflicted injuries on the cerebella of the lower animals, 
and contends, that these experiments show that this 
organ serves for the regulation of muscular motion. 
1 On removing the cerebellum,' says he, ( the animal 
loses the power of executing combined movements.' 
Magendie performed similar experiments on the ce- 
rebellum, and found that they only occasion an irresis- 
tible tendency in the animal to run, walk, or swim, 
backwards. He performed experiments, also, on the 
corpora striata and tubercula quadrigemina, with the 
following results : when one part of these was cut, the 
animal rolled; when another, it went forward, and ex- 
tended its head and extremities ; when another, it bent 
all these : so that, according to this mode of determin- 
ing the cerebral functions, these parts of the brain pos- 
sess an equal claim with ihe cerebellum, to be regard- 
ed as the regulators of motion. The fact is, that all 
parts of the nervous system are so intimately connect- 
ed, that the infliction of injuries is not the way to de- 
termine the functions of any, even its least important 
parts. As, however, the cerebellum consists of a mid- 
dle and two lateral portions, it may not be a single or- 
gan ; and it is possible that Amativeness may be con- 
nected with one part, and voluntary motion with other 
parts. That Amativeness is its chjef function, is held to 
be certain. 



(40) 



*5. PHILOPROGENITIVENESS. 

A strong membrane, called the Tentorium, separates 
the cerebellum from the brain. The organ of Philo- 
progenitiveness is situated immediately above the mid- 
dle part of the cerebellum, and corresponds to the pro- 
tuberance of the occiput; but a space of nearly half an 
inch on the skull intervenes between the cerebellum 
and this organ, which is occupied by the attachment of 
the tentorium to the skull, and by the transverse sinus. 
It is generally larger, in proportion to the other or- 
gans, in females than in males. When it is large, and 
No. 1. moderate, it gives a drooping appearance to the 
hind part of the head. 

The chief function of the faculty is to produce the 
instinctive love of offspring in general. This feeling is 
distinct from benevolence ; for we frequently find it 
strong in selfish individuals, who manifest no compas- 
sionate feeling towards adults. It is equally distinct 
from self-love ; for sometimes the most generous are 
passionately fond of children, and occasionally the 
most selfish are indifferent about them. It chiefly sup- 
ports the mother in her toils, and renders even delight- 
ful the cares and troubles of rearing a helpless offspring. 

The natural language of the faculty is soft, tender, 
and sympathetic; and when the feeling is strong, the 
individual is delighted at the sight of children, who, 
on the other hand, are instinctively captivated by its 
natural expression, and flock around him when he 



C0NCENTRAT1VENESS. 41 

makes his appearance. It is large in the Hindoo, Ne- 
gro, Esquimaux, Ceylonese, and Charib skulls. — Es- 
tablished. 



3. CONCENTRATIVENESS. 

The organ is situated immediately above Philopro- 
geniiiveness, and below Self-Esteem. 

Observation proves that this is a distinct organ, be- 
cause it is sometimes large, when the organs of Philo- 
progenitiveness and Self-Esteem lying below and above 
it are small, and sometimes small when these are large. 
Dr. SruRZHEiM observed it to be large in those animals 
and persons who seemed attached to particular places ; 
and he thence termed it the organ of lnhabitiveness. 
The function, however, is stated by him to be only 
conjectural. From more enlarged observations, it 
dow seems probable, that its function is to maintain 
two or more powers in simultaneous and combined 
activity, so that they may be directed towards one ob* 
ject ; and it is, in consequence, named Concentrative- 
ness. 

The first step in the discovery of this last function 
was the observation, that certain individuals are natur- 
ally prone to sedentary habits, and find it painful to 
stir abroad, without a special motive, and this, too, of 
considerable urgency. Other persons experience equal 
difficulty in settling ; their strongest desire is to engage 
in some active employment, in which their attention 

shall be carried, as it were, out of themselves, and oc- 
4* 



42 CONCENTRATIVENESS. 

cupied with external objects and occurrences. The 
former were perceived to possess this organ large, the 
latter small. Some patients, afflicted with nervous de- 
bility, feel extreme aversion to active pursuits, in 
whom the organ may be found small ; but these are 
cases of disease, and the observations now alluded to 
were made on individuals in the vigor of life and 
health. 

The next step was the observation, that some per- 
sons possess a natural facility of concentrating their 
feelings and thoughts, without the tendency to be dis- 
tracted by the intrusion of emotions or ideas foreign 
to the main point under consideration. Such persons 
possess a command over their feelings and intellectual 
powers, so as to be able to direct them, in their whole 
vigor, to the pursuit which forms the object of their 
study for the time ; and hence they produce the great- 
est possible results from the particular endowment 
which nature has bestowed on them. Other individ- 
uals, on the other hand, have been observed, whose 
feelings do not act in combination, who find their 
thoughts lost in dissipation, who are unable to keep 
the leading idea in its situation of becoming promi- 
nence ; are distracted by accessories ; and, in short, 
experience great difficulty in combining their whole 
powers to a single object. These persons, even with 
considerable reflecting talents, fail to produce a corres- 
ponding general effect, and their mental productions 
are characterized by the intrusion of irrelevant emo- 
tions and ideas, and the unperceived omission of others 
that are important, arising from the disjoined action of 



CONCENTRATIVENESS. 43 

their several faculties. The organ was perceived to 
be large in the former, and small in the latter. 

Probably it is by the exercise of a power resem- 
bling Concentrativeness, that animals, such as the 
chamois, who are fond of heights, are enabled to 
maintain in action all those faculties which are neces- 
sary to preserve their position while they browse in 
difficult or dangerous situations, and at the same time 
avoid the aim of the hunter. There appears, there- 
fore, to be nothing in the limited observations of Dr. 
Spurzheim, inconsistent with the more extensive 
views now taken of the functions of this faculty. 
Concentrativeness, however, is stated as only proba- 
ble ; and the function is open to elucidation from 
farther observations. 

It has been objected, that concentration of mind is 
an intellectual operation, and that the organ No. 3, is 
situated between the propensities and sentiments. I 
doubt, however, if concentration be of an intellectual 
nature. All the Intellectual faculties perceive ob- 
jects or relations existing independent of the mind, 
but Concentrativeness has no external object or rela- 
tion. Its whole influence and sphere of activity, like 
those of Firmness and Self-Esteem, near which it is 
placed, arise and terminate in the mind itself. This is 
characteristic of a sentiment, and not of an intellectual 
pow r er. Farther, Concentrativeness combines the 
feelings, and directs them in a concentrated effort, as 
much as it does the Intellectual faculties. The Au- 
thor of Waverly speaks of c concentrated grief; } and 
it is sense to speak of 6 concentrated selfishness,' or 
' concentrated affection ; ' these effects arising from this 



44 ADHESIVENESS. 

organ, combined with Cautiousness, Self-Esteem, Ad- 
hesiveness or Acquisitiveness. The organ is small in 
the American Indians, and larger in Negroes and Eu- 
ropeans. A convolution of the brain, lying above the 
corpus callosum, extends from the bottom of this or- 
gan to the organs of the Intellectual faculties, which 
convolution is in communication also with Self-Esteera, 
and several organs of the Sentiments. 



4. ADHESIVENESS. 

This organ is situated on each side of Concentra- 
tiveness, higher up than Philoprogenitiveness, and just 
above the lambdoidal suture. 

The faculty produces the instinctive tendency to at- 
tach one's self to surrounding objects, animate and in- 
animate. Those persons in whom it is very strong 
feel an involuntary impulse to embrace and cling to 
the object of their affections. It disposes to friend- 
ship and society in general, and gives ardor to the 
shake of the hand, in boys, it frequently indicates it- 
self by attachment to dogs, horses, rabbits, birds, and 
other animals. In girls, it shows itself by affectionate 
embraces of the doll. It is stronger, and the organ is 
larger, in women than in men. When too strong, ex- 
cessive regret at the loss of a friend, or excessive un- 
easiness at leaving one's country, or the disease called 
Nostalgia, is the result. When feeble, indifference to 
others is the consequence, which may render a man 



C0MBAT1VKNESS. 45 

an anchorite or hermit. The organ is large in Mrs. 
H. and Mary Macinnes. — Established. 



5. COMBATIVENESS. 

The organ is situated at the inferior and posterior 
or mastoid angle of the parietal bone. 

The faculty produces active courage, and when en- 
ergetic, the propensity to attack. A considerable en- 
dowment is indispensable to all great and magnanimous 
characters. It gives that boldness to the mind which 
enables it to look undaunted on opposition, also to 
meet, and, if possible, to overcome it. When very 
deficient, the individual cannot resist attacks, and is 
incapable of making his way where he must invade 
the prejudices or encounter the hostility of others. 
When too energetic, it inspires with the love of con- 
tention for its own sake ; leads to a fiery and quarrel- 
some disposition ; and pleasure may then be felt in 
disputation or in fighting. 

Dr. Rejd and Mr. Stewart admit this propensity 
under the name of Sudden Resentment ; and Dr. 
Thomas Brown speaks of a principle which gives us 
c additional vigor, when assailed, and which, from the 
certainty of this additional vigor of resistance, renders 
attack formidable to the assailant.' And, again, ' There 
is,' says he, 6 a principle in our mind, which is to us like 
a constant protector, which may slumber, indeed, but 
which slumbers only at seasons when its vigilance 



46 DESTRUCT1VENESS. 

would be useless ; which awakes, therefore, at the first 
appearance of unjust intention, and which becomes 
more watchful and more vigorous, in proportion to the 
violence of the attack which it has to dread.' — Vol. 
iii. p. 324. ' Courage,' says Dr. Johnson, ' is a qual- 
ity so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is al- 
ways respected, even when it is associated with vice.' 
The chief difference between these and the Phrenolog- 
ical views is, that we regard the propensity as an active 
impulse, exerting an habitual influence on the mind ; 
inspiring it, when the organ is large, with constitutional 
boldness, and prompting it to seek opportunities and 
situations in which the faculty may exercise itself; 
and, when the organ is small, occasioning a character- 
istic timidity and deficiency of spirit for active enter- 
prize. 

The organ is generally large in persons who have 
murdered from the impulse of the moment. It is 
large in the Charibs, King Robert Bruce, Gene- 
ral Wurmser, David Haggart, Maxwell ; mod- 
erate in Rev. Mr. M., and small in most of the Hin- 
doos and Ceylonese, — Established, 



6. DESTRUCTIVENESS. 

This organ is situated immediately above, and ex- 
tends a little backwards and forwards from, the exter- 
nal opening of the ear, and corresponds to the squa- 
mous plate of the temporal bone. In Dr. Gall's 
plates it extends a few lines farther back than in Dr. 



DESTRUCTIVENESS. 47 

Spurzheim's. I have seen cases in nature corres- 
ponding to both, there being slight variations in the 
situations of the cerebral organs, as in the distribution 
of the blood-vessels, nerves, &c. in different individuals. 
A difference in the skulls of carnivorous and herbivor- 
ous animals, first suggested the existence of the organ. 

If we place the skull of any carnivorous animal hor- 
izontally, and trace a vertical line through the external 
opening of the ear, a great portion of the cerebral 
mass is situated above and behind that line; and the 
more an animal is carnivorous, the larger is the quan- 
tity of brain there situated. 

The faculty produces the impulse, attended with 
desire, to destroy in general. Combativeness gives 
the desire to meet and overcome obstacles ; but hav- 
ing vanquished them, the mind, under its inspiration, 
pursues them no farther. Destructiveness prompts us 
to exterminate them, so that they may never rise up 
to occasion fresh embarrassment. When energetic, it 
gives a keen and impatient tone to the mind, and adds 
force, in certain circumstances, to character. Anger 
and rage are manifestations of it ; which being ana- 
lyzed are threats of unpleasant consequences or ven- 
geance to those who transgress our commands, or en- 
croach on our rights. Hence it gives weight to injunc- 
tion, by inspiring with dread of suffering in case of 
disobedience. It is essential to satire ; and inspires 
authors who write cuttingly, with the talent of lacerat- 
ing the feelings of their opponents. When very de- 
ficient, there is a lack of fire in the constitution ; the 
mind, as it were, wants edge, and the individual is 
prone to sink into passive indolence. He feels, too, 



48 DESTRUCTIVENESS. 

and others likewise discover, that his resentment wants 
force, that it is feeble and impotent ; and the wicked 
set him at defiance, or subject him with impunity to 
abuse. Cruelly is the result of its excessive energy, 
uncontrolled by Benevolence and Justice. The organ 
is conspicuous in the heads of cool and deliberate mur- 
derers, and in persons habitually delighting in cruelty. 
Cursing is the outward expression of its fierce activity, 
and is another form of its abuse. 

Metaphysical authors, in general, take no notice of 
any such propensity as this. Lord Kames, who has 
been censured by Mr. Stewart, for admitting, unne- 
cessarily, too many instinctive principles, observes, that 
6 there is a contrivance of Nature, no less simple than 
effectual, which engages men to bear with cheerfulness 
the fatigues of hunting, and the uncertainty of cap- 
ture ; and that is an appetite for hunting? — c It is an 
illustrious instance of providential care, the adapting 
the internal constitution of man to his external circum- 
stances. The appetite for hunting, though among us 
little necessary for food, is to this day remarkable in 
young men, high and low, rich and poor. Natural 
propensities may be rendered faint or obscure, but 
never are totally eradicated.' — Sketches, B. i. In 
point of fact, I have found the organ large in keen 
sportsmen without exception. It is also generally 
large in those who are fond of seeing public execu- 
tions, floggings, and the infliction of pain in all its 
forms. When very powerful, but combined with the 
higher sentiments equally vigorous, it renders the de- 
struction of inanimate objects a delightful occupation. 
The organ is large in the busts of Dean, Mitchell, 



AL1MENT1VENESS. 49 

Pallet, Thurtell, Heaman, and in the skulls of 
Bruce, Gordon, Hussey, Nisbet, Bellingham, 
Buchanan, Rotherham, Albert; and small or 
moderate in many of the Hindoos. — Established. 



alimentiveness, or organ of the appetite for 

FOOD. 

In the sheep, the olfactory nerves, which are very 
large, are perceived to terminate in two cerebral con- 
volutions, lying at the base of the middle lobe of the 
brain, adjoining and immediately below the situation 
occupied by the organs of Destructiveness in carnivo- 
rous animals. The sheep is guided in the selection of 
its food by the sense of smell ; and, for several years, 
I suggested, in my Lectures on Phrenology, the infer- 
ence as probable, that these parts may be the organs 
of the instinct which prompts that animal to take nour- 
ishment. Mr. Crook mentioned the same idea to 
Dr. Spurzheim, and Dr. Hoppe of Copenhagen has 
published two valuable communications on the subject, 
in the Phrenological Journal. ' I have been led, 5 says 
Dr. Hoppe, < to think that the place where the differ- 
ent degrees of development of the organ for taking 
nourishment are manifested in the living body, in man, 
is in the fossa zygomatica, exactly under the organ of 
Acquisitiveness, and before that of Destructiveness,' 
p. 115. When the organ is large, the head is broad 
at this part, but which must not be confounded with high 
cheek-bones. The temporal muscle covers the organ, 
5 



50 THE LOVE OF LIFE. 

and allowance ought to be made for its thickness. 
The organ is considered as only probable : its place is 
marked, but it is not numbered, in the Plate. 



ORGAN OF THE LOVE OF LIFE. 

Different individuals possess the love of life in very 
different degrees. In some it is so strong, that they view 
death as the greatest calamity ; and the idea of annihi- 
lation is absolutely insupportable to their imaginations. 
Other persons again are more indifferent about life, 
and do not regard its termination as a formidable evil : 
so far as the mere pleasure of living is concerned, they 
are ready to surrender it with scarcely a feeling of re- 
gret. I have found these feelings combined with the 
most opposite dispositions and external circumstances. 
The ardent lovers of life were not always the healthy, 
the gay, and the fortunate ; nor those who were com- 
paratively indifferent to death always the feeble the 
gloomy, and the misanthropic; — on the contrary, the 
feeling exists strongly or weakly in opposite characters 
indiscriminately. 

I infer from these facts, that we are bound to life by 
a primitive instinct, connected with a particular organ. 
It is conjectured to lie at the base of the middle lobe 
of the brain, towards the mesial line. This idea is 
thrown out chiefly to excite to observation. Dr. A. 
Combe found the convolution referred to very large in 
a lady who was remarkable for the strength of her 
attachment to life. 



(51) 



7. SECRET1VENESS. 

The organ is situated at the inferior edge of the pa- 
rietal bones, immediately above Destructiveness, or in 
the middle of tiie lateral portion of the brain. 

The faculties of the human mind possess spontane- 
ous activity; hence various thoughts, desires, and 
emotions, arise involuntarily, the outward expression of 
which is not, in all circumstances, becoming. Secre- 
tiveness produces the instinctive tendency to conceal 
these, and to suppress their manifestations, till the un- 
derstanding shall have decided on their propriety and 
probable consequences. Besides, man and animals 
are occasionally liable to the assaults of enemies, which 
may be avoided by concealment, in cases where 
strength is wanting to repel them by force. Nature, 
therefore, by means of this propensity, enables them to 
add prudence, slyness, or cunning, according to the 
dictates of the other faculties possessed by the individ- 
ual, to their other means of defence. It may be applied 
in a great variety of ways ; and a certain portion of it 
is indispensable to the formation of a prudent charac- 
ter. It imposes a salutary restraint on the manifesta- 
tions of the other faculties, and serves as a defence 
against prying curiosity. Those in whom it is defi- 
cient are too ope*i for the intercourse of general socie- 
ty ; they are characterized by a headlong bluntness of 
manner, and deficiency of tact, arising from the instan- 
taneous expression of each thought and emotion, as it 



52 SECRETIVENESS. 

flows on the mind, without regard to the delicacies re- 
quired by time, place, or circumstances. Too great 
an endowment, on the other hand, when not regulated 
by strong intellect, and moral sentiments, produces 
abuses. The individual then mistakes cunning for 
prudence and ability : he conceals every purpose 
of his life, trifling or momentous ; and he may be led 
even to practise lying, duplicity, and deceit. It sup- 
plies the cunning necessary to theft, and by producing 
an inward feeling of extreme secrecy, lessens the fear 
of detection, and thus indirectly prompts to the com- 
mission of crime. I have found it large in a great 
number of habitual thieves. 

The organ has been found large in actors, and in 
those who excel in the imitative arts. Combined with 
Imitation, it gives the power of expression ; and in act- 
ors, it may be conceived to do this, by furnishing its 
possessor with the power of praciising a conscious du- 
plicity, a talent necessarily implied in the representation 
of a variety of characters, or by restraining the partic- 
ular faculties whose influence requires to be withdrawn 
for the time. If we wish to deter a child from some 
act not very improper in itself, but which to him 
might be prejudicial, we feign anger, and forbid him 2 
in this process Secretiveness probably restrains Philo- 
progemtiveness and Benevolence, and permits the nat- 
ural language of Combaiiveness and Destruciiveness 
to appear. When an actor performs Richard III., Se- 
cretiveness will suppress Benevolence, Veneration, and 
Conscientiousness, and allow ample scope to Combat- 
iveness, Destruciiveness, Firmness, and Love of Ap- 
probation. If this theory be correct, it will be by re- 



ACQUISITIVENESS. 53 

straining some faculties and permitting others to mani- 
fest themselves energetically, that Secretiveness will 
conduce to acting, as distinguished from Imitation. 
The power of personation is one of the ingredients in 
a talent for profound dissimulation and hypocrisy. Se- 
cretiveness is an element, along with the faculty of Wit, 
in a talent for humor, and produces the sly conceal- 
ment of real character, design or sentiment, which is 
essential to humorous representations. In writing, it 
leads to Irony, which is a species of humor. It gives 
a sidelong glance, and suspicious look, to the eye ; 
and, when energetic, inspires the individual with a de- 
sire to discover the designs of others, as well as to 
conceal his own. Mr. W. Scott has thrown great 
light on the functions of this faculty, in an Essay, 
published in the Phrenological Transactions. 

This propensity appears to have been unknown to 
the metaphysicians. Lord Bacon, however, in his 
Essay on Cunning, describes accurately many of its 
abuses. The organ is large in Raphael, Bruce, La 
Fontaine, and Clara Fisher ; also in American In- 
dians, in the cunning debtor, David Haggart, Hin- 
doos, and Gibson : it is moderate in skulls with organs 
marked. — Established. 



8. acquisitiveness. 

The organ is situated at the anterior inferior angle 
of the parietal bone. It was, by Dr. Spurzheim, call- 
5* 



54 ACQUISITIVENESS. 

ed Coveiiveness; Sir G. S. Mackenzie suggested 
the more appropriate name of Acquisitiveness. 

The faculty produces the tendency to acquire, and 
the desire to possess in general, without reference to- 
the uses to which the objects, when attained, may be 
applied. The idea of property is founded on it. It 
takes its direction from the other faculties, and hence 
may lead to collecting coins, paintings, minerals, and 
other objects of curiosity or science, as well as money. 
Idiots, under its influence, are known to collect things 
cf no intrinsic v r alue. A person in whom it is pre- 
dominant, desires to acquire for the pleasure attending 
the mere act of acquisition. If he is owner of fifty 
acres, he will vastly delight in obtaining fifty more ; 
if of a hundred thousand, he will still rejoice in doub- 
ling their number. His understanding may be convinc- 
ed that he already possesses even superfluity ; and, 
nevertheless, under the vivid impulses o the faculty* 
he may eagerly pant for more, for its gratfication. 
This instinctive tendency to acquire and to accumu- 
late, is the foundation of wealth, and of the conveni- 
ences and luxuries of civilized society. If men had 
always provided only what they could individually en- 
joy, they would never have emerged from the savage 
condition. Persons in whom the propensity is weak, 
think of every thing, and pursue every object, with 
more avidity than w 7 ealth ; there is no intense vivacity 
in their pursuit of gain. Its abuse leads tt\ covetous- 
ness, dishonesty, and theft. Avarice is the result of 
its predominating energy. 

The metaphysicians have not admitted such a pro- 
pensity, but resolve the desire of acquisition into love 



CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 



55 



of the objects which wealth may purchase. The 
Phrenological view is founded on observation, and ac- 
cords better with the phenomena of actual life. Lord 
Kames, however, observes, that ' Man is by nature a 
hoarding animal, having an appetite for storing up 
things of use ; and the sense of property is bestowed 
on men, for securing to them what they thus store up.' 
This author has also remarked, that the same instinct 
is possessed by the lower animals, 'The beavers,' 
says he, { perceive the timber they store up for food to 
be their property ; and the bees seem to have the same 
perception with regard to their winter's provision of 
honey.' He continues, ' The appetite for property, 
in its nature a great blessing, degenerates into a great 
curse when it transgresses the bounds of moderation.' 
(Sketches, Book i. Sk. 2.) These observations are 
highly phrenological. The organ is large in Heaman; 
full in the Rev. Mr. M. ; and moderate in King Rob- 
ert Bruce. — Established. 



9. constructiveness. 

This organ is situated at that part of the frontal 
bone immediately above the spheno-temporal suture. 
Its appearance and situation vary slightly, according 
to the development of the neighboring parts. Its size 
is less easily distinguished, if the zygomatic process is 
very projecting, or if the middle lobes of the brain, or 
the forehead in general, or the organs of Language 



56 CCN3TRUCT1VENESS. 

and Order in particular, are greatly developed. The 
leading object is to determine the actual size of each 
organ, and not its mere prominence. In examining 
nature, it is proper to .keep these observations in view, 
and also to notice, that if the base of the brain is nar- 
row, this organ holds a situation a little higher, and 
"there will then frequently be found a slight depression 
at the external angle of the eye, betwixt the zygomat- 
ic process, and the organ in question, especially when 
the muscles are thin. In such cases, it has sometimes 
appeared as high up as Tune. This slight variation 
from uniform situation occurs, as already mentioned, 
in the distribution of all the parts of the body ; but 
the anatomist, who know T s the circumstance, is not, on 
this account, embarrassed in his operations ; for the 
aberration never exceeds certain limits, and he acquires, 
by experience, the tact of allowing for it to this ex- 
tent. It has been objected, that the elevation or de- 
pression of this part of the brain depends upon the 
force with which the temporal muscles, which lie over 
it, have acted in the individual ; and it is said that 
carnivorous animals which masticate bones, and in 
consequence possess those muscles in a very powerful 
degree, have narrow heads, and little brain in the re- 
gion of this organ. The answer to this is four-fold ; 
1st, Carnivorous animals do not build, and the organ 
in question is wanting in them. The organ being ab- 
sent, their heads are narrow ; but all this is in exact 
accordance with phrenology. 2dly, In the beaver, 
which cuts timber with its teeth, and in which the 
temporal muscles act with great energy, the organ is 
large, and the head is broad ; which also harmonizes 



CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 57 

with our doctrine, and contradicts that of the objec- 
tors. 3dly, In the human race the breadth of the 
head, at the region in question, which indicates the 
size of the organ, does not bear a proportion to the 
force with which mastication is performed ; for some 
individuals, who live chiefly on slops, and chew little, 
have narrow heads, and weak constructive talents ; 
while others, who eat bard viands, have broad heads, 
and manifest great mechanical skill ; and, ithly, The 
actual breadth of the head in this quarter, from what- 
ever cause it arises, bears a regular proportion to the 
actual endowment of constructive talent. The tem- 
poral muscle differs in thickness in different persons ; 
and the phrenologist ought to desire the individual ob- 
served to move the lower jaw, and, while he does so, 
to feel the muscle, and allow for its size. This un- 
certainty in regard to the dimensions of the temporal 
muscle, renders it unsafe to predicate the size of the 
organs of Constructiveness and Acquisitiveness from 
casts of the head, unless information as to the thickness 
of the fleshy fibres be communicated. These organs, 
therefore, are best established by examining living 
heads, or skulls, or casts of skulls. 

In man, the faculty inspires with the tendency to 
construct in general ; and the particular direction in 
which it will be exerted, will depend on the other pre* 
dominant faculties of the individual i for example, if 
combined with large Combativeness and Destructive- 
ness, it may be employed in fabricating implements of 
war ; if joined with Veneration predominating, it may 
tend towards erecting places of religious worship. If 
united with large Form, Imitation^ and Secret! veness. 



5S CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 

it may inspire with a love of portrait-painting. Its 
range is limited also in proportion to the degree of the 
reflecting organs with which it is combined ; these, 
without it, never inspire with a genius for mechanics, 
but, when largely possessed, they, by giving a greater 
knowledge of the relation between means and ends, 
extend and facilitate its exertions. In the lower ani- 
mals, it appears to be directed, in a great measure, to 
one special object ; in the bird, to a particular form of 
nest; in the beaver, to a special fashion of a hut. 
These animals being deficient in the generalizing and 
directing powers conferred on man, appear to be in- 
spired not only with a desire to build, but with the 
comprehension of a specific fabric. The organ is in- 
dispensable to all who follow operative mechanical 
professions. It is large in the beaver, field-mouse, 
and other animals which build. The organ is large in 
Raphael, Milliner of Vienna, Brunel, Williams, 
Haydon, Herschel, Wilkie, Edwards; and small 
in New Hollanders. — Established, 



(59) 



Genus II. — Sentiments. 

These faculties, like those which we have already 
considered, do not form specific ideas, but produce 
merely a Sentiment; that is, a propensity, joined 
with an emotion, or feeling of a certain kind. Sever- 
al of them are common to man and the lower animals ; 
others are peculiar to man. The former shall be first 
treated of. 



1. Sentiments common to Man and the lower 
Animals. 

10. self-esteem. 

The organ is situated at the vertex or top of the 
head, a little above the posterior or sagittal angle of 
the parietal bones. 

This faculty produces the sentiment of Self-esteem 
or Self-love in general. A due endowment of it, like 
that of all other faculties, produces only good effects. 
It imparts that degree of satisfaction with self, which 
leaves the mind open to the enjoyment of the boun- 
ties of Providence and the amenities of life, and in- 
spires it with that degree of confidence in its own 



60 SELF-ESTEEM. 

powers, which essentially contributes to their success- 
ful application. In general, it leads to esteem of the 
special propensities and sentiments which character- 
ize the individual in whom it is powerful ; and hence, 
when combined with vigorous moral sentiments and 
intellect, it contributes to true dignity and greatness of 
mind ; — the individual esteems himself for those qual- 
ities which are really worthy of the esteem of ethers, 
— intellectual and moral excellence. It also aids in 
maintaining virtuous conduct, by communicating the 
feeling of self-respect. Deficiency of it produces 
want of confidence, and of a proper estimate of what 
is due to one's self. It is only when possessed in an 
inordinate degree, and indulged without direction by 
the higher faculties, that it occasions abuses. It may, 
then, in children show itself in pettishness, and a wil- 
ful temper; in adults, in arrogance, conceit, pride and 
egotism. It is an ^ingredient in Envy. There are 
persons who arc exceedingly censorious, whose con- 
versation is habitually directed to their neighbors' 
faults, who feel sore when others are elevated, and ex- 
perience great pleasure in bringing them down; — 
such tendencies proceed from Self- Esteem and De- 
structiveness, not directed by Benevolence and Justice. 
The bitter and envious tone, the sententious reflections, 
and the ill-concealed self-complacency of such persons, 
all indicate an internal adulation of self, and a vivid desire 
of superiority, acquired even by depreciating others. A 
common form of abuse of the feeling, is contempt en- 
tertained for other men. The mechanic contemns the 
domestic servant ; the wholesale merchant contemns 
the retail dealer; the ancient feudal lord contemns the 



SELF-ESTEEM. 



61 



man who has risen to fortune and honor by his own 
talents. Children, in hooting and pelting an idiot, 
gratify Self-Esteem and Destructiveness. Their chief 
pleasure arises from a strong sense of their own supe- 
riority. Self-Esteem corresponds, in some measure, 
to the Desire of Power of the metaphysicians. Dr. 
Thomas Brown calls it ' Pride,' and defines it ' that 
feeling of vivid pleasure which attends the conscious- 
ness of our excellence,' vol. iii. p. 300. When very 
large, the individual walks generally in an erect pos- 
ture, and by his reserved and authoritative manner, 
induces the impression in others, that he considers 
himself infinitely elevated above his fellow men. It 
disposes to the use of the emphatic I in writing and 
conversation. Joined with Acquisitiveness, and not 
regulated by other sentiments, it produces ' Selfish- 
ness,' in the general acceptation of the term. 

Nations differ in regard to the degree in which they 
possess this sentiment. The English have more of it 
than the French, and hence the manner of a genuine 
Englishman appears to a Frenchman cold, haughty, 
and supercilious. The lower animals, such as the 
turkey-cock, peacock, horse, &c. manifest feelings re- 
sembling pride or self-esteem. When the organ be- 
comes excited by disease, the individual is prone to 
imagine himself a king, emperor, or a transcendent 
genius, and some have even fancied themselves the 
Supreme Being. The organ is large in Haggart, 
the Hindoos, the Chinese, Dempsey; moderate in 
Dr. Hette, and the American Indians. — Estab- 
lished. 

6 



(62) 



11. LOVE OF APPROBATION. 

This organ is situated on each side of that of Self- 
Esteem, and commences about half an inch from the 
lambdoidal suture. 

The faculty produces the love of the esteem of 
others, expressed in praise or approbation. A due 
endowment of it is indispensable to an amiable char- 
acter. It induces its possessor to make active exer- 
tions to please others ; also to suppress numberless lit- 
tle manifestations of selfishness, and to restrain many 
peculiarities of temper and disposition, from the dread 
of incurring disapprobation. It is the butt upon which 
Wit strikes, when, by means of ridicule, it drives us 
from our follies. To be laughed at is worse than 
death to a person in whdm this sentiment is predomi- 
nant. The direction in which gratification of it will 
be sought, will depend on the other faculties with 
which it is combined in the individual. If the moral 
sentiments and intellect be vigorous, it will desire an 
honorable fame ; and hence it animates and excites 
the poet, painter, orator, warrior, and^statesman. If 
the lower propensities predominate, the individual 
will be pleased by the reputation of being the best 
fighter, or the greatest drinker of his circle. 

When too energetic, and not regulated by the high- 
er powers, it produces great abuses ; it then gives rise 
to a fidgety anxiety about what others will think of us, 
which is at once subversive of happiness and indepen- 



LOVE OF APPROBATION. 63 

dence. It renders the mere dicta of the society in 
which the individual moves, his code of morality, re- 
ligion, taste, and philosophy ; and incapacitates him 
from upholding truth or virtue, if disowned by those 
whom he imagines influential or genteel. It then 
overwhelms the artist, author, or public speaker, with 
misery, if a rival is praised in the journals in higher 
terms than himself. A lady is then tormented at per- 
ceiving, in the possession of an acquaintance, finer dress- 
es or equipages than her own. It excites the individ- 
ual to talk of himself, his affairs, and connexions, so 
as to communicate to the auditor vast ideas of his great- 
ness or goodness ; in short, vanity is one form of its 
abuse. c Sir,' says Dr. Johnson, ' Goldsmith is so 
much afraid of being unnoticed, that he often talks, 
merely lest you should forget that he is in the compa- 
ny.' When not combined with Conscientiousness and 
Benevolence, it leads to feigned professions of respect 
and friendship ; and many manifest it by promises and 
invitations, never intended to be fulfilled or accepted. 
It, as well as Self-Esteem, prompts to the use of* the 
first person, but its tone is that of courteous solicitation, 
while the J of Self-Esteem is presumptuous, and full 
of pretension. 

When, on the other hand, the organ is deficient, 
and the sentiment, in consequence, is feeble, the indi- 
vidual cares little about the opinions entertained of him 
by others : — If they have not the power to punish his 
person, or abridge his possessions, he is capable of 
laughing at their censures, and contemning their ap- 
plause. Persons of this sort, if endowed with the self- 
ish propensities in a strong degree^ constitute what 



64 LOVE OF APPROBATION. 

are termed ' impracticable ' men ; their whole feelings 
are concentrated in Self, and they are dead to the mo- 
tive which might induce them to abate one iota of their 
own pretensions to oblige others. 

The disposition to oblige, conferred by this sentiment, 
may be distinguished from the genuine kindness which 
springs from Benevolence, by this, that the Love of 
Approbation prompts its possessor to do most for those 
who, from superiority in rank, wealth, power, or repu- 
tation, least require his aid; whereas Benevolence 
takes exactly the opposite direction. The two senti- 
ments, when both vigorous, greatly aid each other. 

The organ is larger in women in general than in 
men. The French are more remarkable for a larger 
development of it than of Self-Esteem ; and on this 
account appear to the English, in whom the latter fac- 
ulty predominates, vain, ostentatious, and absurdly 
complimentary. This organ is uniformly large in bash- 
ful individuals ; one element of this disposition being 
the fear of incurring disapprobation. The metaphy- 
sicians admit the sentiment, under the name of the 
Desire of Esteem. It is very powerful in some of the 
lower animals, as the dog, horse, he. The organ is 
large in Bruce, Dr. Hette, American Indians, Clara 
Fisher; deficient in D. Haggart and Dempsey. — 
Established. 



;(«) 



12. CAUTIOUSNESS. 

This organ is situated near the middle of each parie- 
tal bone, where the ossification of the bone generally 
commences. 

The faculty produces the emotion of fear in general, 
and prompts its possessor to take care : hence it is 
named Cautiousness. A due degree of it is essential 
to a prudent character. The tendency of it is, to 
make the individual in whom it is strong hesitate be- 
fore he acts, and, from apprehending danger, to trace 
consequences, that he may be assured of his safety. 
When too powerful, it produces doubts, irresolution, 
and wavering. When deficient, the individual is not 
apprehensive about the results of his conduct : he is 
rash and precipitant, and often proceeds to act without 
mature deliberation. The involuntary activity, from 
internal causes, of this organ, in those in whom it is 
too powerful, produces sensations of dread and appre- 
hension, gloomy despondency, or even despair, with- 
out an adequate external cause. A great and involun- 
tary, but momentary activity of it, occasions a panic, a 
state in which the mind is hurried away by an irresis- 
tible emotion of fear, disproportioned to the outward 
occasion. The organs are generally largely developed 
in children ; and, in some instances, are so prominent, 
as to alarm mothers with the fear of disease or defor- 
mity. Such children may be safely trusted to take 
care of themselves ; they will rarely be found in dan- 
6* 



66 



BENEVOLENCE. 



ger. When, on the other hand, the organs are small in 
a child, he will be a hapless infant ; fifty keepers will 
not supply the want of the instinctive guardianship per- 
formed by adequate Cautiousness. This is another 
element in the formation of a bashful character, and pro- 
duces the timidity essential to it. Many of the lower 
animals, as the hare, rook, &c. possess the organ large- 
ly developed ; among them, it is generally larger in 
the female than in the male ; and naturalists have ob- 
served that more of the latter are snared, taken or kill- 
ed, by the hunter, than of the former, even allowing 
for the natural difference between their original num- 
bers. The organ is large in Bruce, Raphael, Het- 
te, the Mummies, and Hindoos; moderate in Bel- 
lingham, Mary Macinnes, and Negroes. — Estab- 
lished. 



13. benevolence. 

This organ is situated at the upper part of the fron- 
tal bone, in the coronal aspect, and immediately be- 
fore the fontanel. 

The faculty produces the desire of the happiness 
of others, and disposes to compassion and active Be- 
nevolence. It communicates mildness and cheerful- 
ness to the temper, and disposes the possessor to view 
charitably the actions and character of others. When 
abused, it leads to profusion. A small development 
of the organ does not produce cruelty as its proper 
function, but only indifference to the welfare of others. 



BENEVOLENCE. 



67 



When Destructiveness is large, and this organ small, 
cruelty may result from the uncontrolled activity and 
abuse of the former. The lower animals possess this 
organ, but the faculty in them seems to be limited, in 
a great degree, to the production of passive mildness 
of disposition. Dogs, horses, monkeys, he. which 
have the corresponding part of ths forehead large and 
elevated, are mild and pacific ; those, on the other hand, 
in which it is small and depressed, are ill-natured. 
It is depressed in all the ferocious tribes of animals, and 
also in nations remarkable for cruelty, as the Charibs, 
&c. The ancients make the top of the forehead much 
higher in Seneca than in Nero. 

It has been objected, that Nature cannot have placed 
a faculty of Benevolence, and another of Destruc- 
tiveness, in the same mind ; but Man is confessedly an 
assemblage of contradictions. Sir Walter Scott speaks 
of fi the well-known cases of those men of undoubted 
benevolence of character and disposition, whose princi- 
pal delight is to see a miserable criminal, degraded 
alike by his previous crimes, and the sentence which 
he has incurred, conclude a vicious and a wretched life, 
by an ignominious and cruel death' (St. Ronan's 
WelL) This indicates Benevolence co-existing in the 
same individual with Destructiveness. The greatest 
of Poets has said, — 

' O thou goddess, 

Thou divine nature, how thyself thou blazon'st 

In these two princely boys ! They are as gentle 

As zephyrs, blowing below the violet, 

Not wagging his sweet head ; and yet as rough, 

Their royal blood enchaf ' d, as the rud'st wind, 

That by the top doth take the mountain-pine, 

And make him stoop to the vale.' 



68 BENEVOLENCE. 

Here Shakspeare informs us, that these boys mani- 
fested much Combativeness and Destructiveness, com- 
bined with great Benevolence. The Sword is one of 
the emblems of State, and what is it but the symbol of 
Destruction read}" to fall on the heads of those who 
offend against the Laws ? — ministering thus, in its 
very severity, to purposes of Benevolence and Justice. 
What are the implements of war but instruments of 
Destruction ; and for what end do soldiers take the 
field, but to destroy their enemies? And yet, sur-v 
geons and numerous assistants attend on armies, to 
succor those on whom the calamities of war have fall- 
en ) the two faculties, which are deemed incompati- 
ble, being thus manifested together, with deliberate 
design. Without Combativeness and Destructiveness, 
there would be no war ; and without Benevolence, if 
these existed, there would be neither mercy nor com- 
passion. Instead, therefore, of the co-existence of 
these faculties forming an objection to the Phrenolog- 
ical system, it proves its harmony with Nature. De- 
ficiency of this organ cannot be compensated by Ad- 
hesiveness, Love of Approbation, or any others. 
When it is small, there is a want of that active good- 
ness, that ever-flowing kindness, which it produces. 

The organ is large in Jacob Jervies, Henri 
Quatre, Raphael, Hette ; very small in Belling- 
ham, Griffiths, and the Charibs ; moderate in 
Bruce, and Gordon. — Established. 



(69) 



II. Sentiments proper to Man. 

Hitherto we have considered Man so far as he is 
animal. But, besides the organs and faculties already- 
spoken of, common to him with the brutes, he is en- 
dowed with a variety of sentiments, which constitute 
the human character, and of which the lower crea- 
tures are entirely destitute. The parts which consti- 
tute the organs of these faculties are not to be found 
in the brains of the latter. The faculties now to be 
treated of produce emotions or feelings, but do not 
form ideas. 



14. VENERATION. 

This organ is situated at the middle of the coronal 
aspect of the brain, at the bregma or fontanel of anat- 
omists. 

The faculty produces the sentiment of respect and 
reverence ; and when directed to the Supreme Be- 
ing, leads to adoration. It predisposes to religious 
feeling, without determining the manner in which it 
ought to be directed ; so that if the understanding be 
very unenlightened, it may be gratified with the wor- 
ship even of images or idols. It is the source also of 
the tendency to look up to and admire superiors in 
rank and power ; and, in this way, disposes to obe- 



70 VENERATION. 

dience. It gives rise to the profound emotions of res- 
pect experienced hy many when looking on the ruins 
of a palace or temple, the graves of their forefathers, 
or the former habitations of men eminent for genius 
or virtue. It enters largely into the constitution of a 
devoted antiquary. It is also the chief element in fil- 
ial piety. When the organ is large, and that of Self- 
Esteem small, humility is the result. 

A deficiency of it does not produce profanity, as a 
positive manifestation ; it only renders the mind little 
sensible to the respectful and reverential feelings be- 
fore described, and in consequence, leaves the other 
faculties at liberty to act without modification by its 
influence. When too energetic, and not enlightened 
by intellect, it produces superstitious respect for ob- 
jects and opinions which have nothing but their anti- 
quity to recommend them, and renders its possessor 
prone to venerate every ancient absurdity, i as the wis- 
dom of our ancestors. 5 In this way, it often presents 
the most formidable obstacles to improvements attend- 
ed with innovation. 

The metaphysicians do not treat of this sentiment 
under the same name, nor in the same point of view 
as the foregoing. Dr. Thomas Brown, however, 
when writing of Pride and Humility, mentions a c ten- 
dency to look above rather than below,' (vol. iii. p. 
313,) which is one effect of veneration. Authors 
who have written on natural religion, say, that we per- 
ceive order, beauty, power, wisdom, and harmony, in 
the works of creation, and hence infer that a Deity 
exists. In this view the Phrenologists agree ; but the 
understanding only peceives facts, and draws infer- 



FIRMNESS. 71 

ences ; and after this induction is completed, it expe- 
riences no tendency to adore the God whom it has 
discovered. In point of fact, however, the tendency 
to worship is a stronger principle in the human mind, 
than the understanding itself, for the stupid and igno- 
rant are often prone to venerate, while their reflecting 
faculties are incapable of directing them to an object 
worthy of their homage. The existence of the senti- 
ment of Veneration distinct from intellect, explains 
this anomaly. Sceptical writers, in general, appear 
either to have been unacquainted with it, or to have 
judged expedient to pass it over without notice. Its 
existence shows that Religion has a foundation in na- 
ture. The organ is large in the Negroes, Raphael, 
Bruce, Kapitapole, Martin ; small in Dr. Hette. 
— Established. 



15. firmness. 

This organ is situated at the posterior part of the 
coronal region of the head, close upon the middle 
line. 

It is difficult to analyze and to describe the ultimate 
principle of this faculty. Its effects are sometimes 
mistaken for will ; because those in whom it is large 
are prone to use the phrase, ' I will,' with great em- 
phasis, which is the natural language of determination ; 
but this sentiment is different from proper volition. It 
produces determination, constancy, and perseverance. 
Fortitude, as distinguished from active courage, re- 
sults from it. When powerful, it gives a fixed, for- 



72 CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 

cible, and emphatic manner to the gait, and a corres- 
ponding tone to the voice. It is indispensable to the 
attainment of excellence in any difficult department 
of art, science, or business. It gives however, per- 
severance only in manifesting the faculties which are 
possessed by the individual in adequate strength. A 
person with great Firmness, and much Tune, may per- 
severe in making music : diminish the Tune, so as to 
render him insensible to melody, and he will not per- 
severe in that attempt ; but if he have great Causality, 
he may then be constant in abstract study. When too 
energetic, and not well directed, it produces obstinacy, 
stubbornness, and infatuation. When weak, the in- 
dividual is prone to yield to the impulses of his pre- 
dominating feelings. If Benevolence assumes the 
sway, he is all kindness ; if Combativeness and De- 
structiveness are forcibly excited, he falls headlong in- 
to passion, outrage, and violence. He also experien- 
ces great difficulty in steadily pursuing any line of ac- 
tion, and is prone to deviate from his object, when as- 
sailed either by internal excitement or external solici- 
tations. The metaphysicians appear not to have been 
acquainted with this sentiment. — The organ is large 
in Bkuce, Haggart, American Indians ; small in 
Mrs. H. and Gibson. — Established. 



16. conscientiousness. 

This organ is situated on the posterior and lateral 
parts of the coronal region of the brain, upwards 



CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 73 

from Cautiousness, and backwards from Hope. In 
Dr. Gall's Plates, the function is marked as unascer- 
tained. Dr. Spurzheim discovered that it is connect- 
ed with Conscientiousness. In his English work, pub- 
lished iri 1815, he mentions this function as probable ; 
but many subsequent observations authorize me to 
state it as ascertained. 

The faculty produces the feeling of obligation, in- 
cumbency, right and wrong, for which we have no 
single definite expression in the English language ; 
just as Idealty produces the sentiment of Beauty* 
Justice is the result of this sentiment, acting in combi^ 
nation with the intellectual powers. The latter inves- 
tigate the motives and consequences of actions ; but, 
after having done so, they, of themselves, experience 
no emotions. In surveying human conduct, however, 
as soon as the intellect has thoroughly penetrated into 
the springs from which it proceeds, a feeling of decid- 
ed approval or condemnation, distinct from all other 
sentiments, and from pure intellection, arises in the 
mind ; and this is produced by the faculty of Con*» 
scientiousness. A large endowment of it is of the 
highest importance in regulating conduct. The indi- 
vidual is then disposed to act justly from the love of 
justice ; he is delighted with the observance of right, 
and disgusted with the doing of wrong ; he is inclined 
to form equitable judgments of the motives and con- 
duct of others; is scrupulous, and, when deserving of 
censure, is as ready to condemn himself as his neigh- 
bor. When the organ, on the other hand, is small, 
the power of experiencing the sentiment is feeble, and 
the individual, in consequence, is more prone to do an 
7 



74 CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 

unprincipled action, if tempted by interest or inclina- 
tion. He experiences a difficulty both in perceiving 
the quality of justice itself, and in feeling the impe- 
rious obligations of duty, arising from its dictates. 
Such persons, taking their own minds as types of 
those of the human race, imagine that the rest of the 
world is carrying on a solemn face, in believing in the 
immutable distinction of right and wrong, and trust- 
ing in the ultimate triumph of truth and justice over 
selfishness and fraud ; they regard as eminently weak, 
those individuals who adopt such views as practical 
maxims ; they conceive themselves to have attained 
to an extraordinary depth of penetration, in discover- 
ing that these notions spring from senseless enthusiasm, 
and that selfishness, disguised occasionally by a show 
of generosity, is the real origin and object of human 
actions. To such men, Phrenologists, and all who es- 
pouse unfashionable opinions, merely because they are 
true, and rely on their truth for their success, appear 
extremely deficient in practical sense and knowledge 
of the world. In point of fact, however, the preten- 
sions of such men to superior sagacity, in such cases, 
are founded on a great moral imperfection ; and indi- 
cate lamentable weakness in an important mental func- 
tion, instead of depth and superior illumination. N. L. 
Remorse is a painful affection of this sentiment, occa- 
sioned by the conduct being in opposition to its dic- 
tates. In the Essays on Phrenology, I stated, that 
Gratitude probably arises from this faculty ; but Sir G. 
S. Mackenzie, in his Illustrations of Phrenology, has 
shown, that ' Gratitude is much heightened by Benev- 
olence, 5 — a view in which I now fully coincide. 



CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 75 

Some metaphyysical writers admit this sentiment, 
and others deny it, apparently just as it was strong or 
weak in their own minds. Dr. Thomas Brown main- 
tains its existence with great eloquence and success; 
and his views accord, in a remarkable degree, with 
those brought to light by Phrenological observations. 
The only point in which his knowledge appears to 
have been defective, is, that it is possessed, in very 
different degrees of strength, by different individuals 
according as the ^prgan is large or small.* The or- 
gan is large in Hette, Mrs. H. ; small in Bruce, 
Haggart, Bellingham, Gibson, and in the skulls of 
most of the savage tribes. 

*I embrace this opportunity of paying a humble tribute to the 
talents of the late Dr. Thomas Brown. The acuteness, depth, 
and comprehensiveness of intellect displayed in his works on the 
Mind, place him in the highest rank of philosophical authors; 
and these great qualities are equalled by the purity and vividness 
of his moral perceptions. His powers of analysis are unrivalled, 
and his eloquence is frequently splendid. His ■ Lectures ' will 
remain a monument of what the human mind was capable of ac- 
complishing, in investigating its own constitution by an imperfect 
method. In proportion as Phrenology becomes known, the admi- 
ration of his genius will increase ; for it is the highest praise to 
say, that, in regard to many points of great difficulty and impor- 
tance in the Philosophy of Mind, he has arrived, by his own 
reflections, at conclusions harmonizing with those obtained by 
Phrenological observation. Of this, his doctrine on the moral 
emotion discussed in the text, is a striking instance. Sometimes, 
indeed, his arguments are subtile, his distinctions too refined, 
and his style is circuitous ; but the Phrenologist will pass lightly 
over these imperfections, for they occur only occasionally, and 
arise from mere excess of the faculties of Secretiveness. Compari- 
son, Causality, and Wit ; on a great endowment of which, along 
with Concentrativeness, his penetration and comprehensiveness 
depended. In fact, he possessed the organs of these powers large- 
ly developed, and they afford a key to his genius. 



(76) 



17. HOPE. 

This organ is situated on each side of that of Vene- 
ration, and extends under part of the frontal and part of 
the parietal bones. 

The faculty produces the sentiment of hope in gen- 
eral, or the tendency to believe in the possibility of 
what the other faculties desire, but without giving the 
conviction of it, which depends on Reflection. It in- 
spires with gay, fascinating, and delightful emotions, 
painting futurity fair and smiling as the regions of pri- 
meval bliss. It invests every distant prospect with 
hues of enchanting brilliancy ; while Cautiousness 
hangs clouds and mists over distant objects, seen by 
the Mind's eye. When too energetic and predomi- 
nant, it disposes to Credulity, and, in mercantile men, 
leads to rash and inconsiderate speculation. Persons 
so endowed never see their own situation in its true 
light, but are led by their extravagant Hope to magni- 
fy tenfold every advantage, while they are blind to 
every obstacle and abatement. They promise largely, 
but rarely perform. Intentional guile, however, is 
frequently not their object ; — they are deceived them- 
selves, by their constitutional tendency to believe every 
thing possible that is future, and promise in the spirit 
of this credulity. Those who perceive this disposition 
in them, ought to make the necessary abatement in 
their expectations. When the organ is very deficient, 
and that of Cautiousness large, a gloomy despondency 
is apt to invade the mind. 



WONDER. 77 

In Religion, this faculty favors the exercise of Faith ; 
and by producing the natural tendency to look forward 
to futurity with expectation, disposes to belief in a life 
to come. It is treated of by the metaphysicians. The 
discovery of the organ and sentiment is due to Dr. 
Spurzheim ; for Dr. Gall did not admit them. In 
his works, the function of the part of the brain in ques- 
tion is marked as unascertained. His notion is, that 
Hope is the attribute of every faculty ; but he appears 
to mistake Desire for Hope. Every faculty Desires, 
but each does not produce Hope ; nay, Desire is some- 
times strong, when Hope is feeble or extinct ; a crimi- 
nal on the scaffold may strongly desire to live, when 
he has no Hope of escaping death. I am convinced, 
by many observations, that Dr. Spurzheim's views 
are correct, and now regard the organ as established. 
It is large in Raphael, small in Dr. Hette. 



18. 



WONDER. 



Dr. Spurzheim states, that the faculty connected 
with this organ produces the tendency to believe in in- 
spirations, presentiments, phantoms, &c. In his 
French works he named it ' Surnaturalite ; ? but he 
now calls it the Sentiment of the Marvellous, or Mar- 
vellousness. I have met with persons excessively fond 
of news, which, if extravagant, were the more accepta- 
ble ; prone to the expression of surprise and astonish- 
ment in ordinary discourse ; deeply affected by tales 

of wonder ; delighting in the Arabian Night's Enter- 

7* 



78 WONDER. 

tainments, and the mysterious incidents abounding in 
the Waverly Novels ; and in them I have uniformly 
found the part of the brain in question largely devel- 
oped. When the organ predominates in an individual, 
he experiences a natural disposition to believe in the 
wonderful and miraculous. When any marvellous cir- 
cumstances is communicated to him, the tendency of 
his mind is to believe it without examination ; and an 
effort of philosophy is necessary to resist the belief, in- 
stead of evidence being requisite to produce it. In 
some individuals, in whom the organ is large, there is 
a peculiar and unconscious turning up of the exterior 
angles of the eye-lashes, expressive of surprise. In 
other persons, I have found the part of the brain in 
question small, and in them it was accompanied with 
a staid soberness of feeling, diametrically the opposite 
of the manifestations above described. Such individ- 
uals were annoyed by every thing marvellous or 
strange ; they scarcely felt or expressed surprise, and 
had no taste for narratives leaving the beaten track of 
probability or reality, and soaring into the regions of 
supernatural fiction. On analyzing these manifesta- 
tions, they all appear to be referable to the sentiment 
of Wonder, an emotion which is quite distinguishable 
from those hitherto enumerated. This sentiment, in 
a state of extreme and uncontrolled energy, probably 
gave rise to those extraordinary feelings and disturbed 
imaginations which led Dr. Spurzheim at first to name 
the faculty c Surnaturalite.' The name which he now 
uses coincides in meaning with that which I have ven- 
tured to propose ; and regarding the function of the 
organ itself, there is no essential difference between 



IDEALITY. 79 

us. The organ is uniformly large in fanatics. It pre- 
dominates in the Rev. Edward Irving, and in all his 
followers whom I have seen. 

Dr. Adam Smith, in the History of Astronomy, 
calls Wonder a Sentiment, and Dr. Thomas Brown, 
vol. iii. p. 59, admits it as a primitive emotion, and 
contends with success, that Surprise and Wonder are 
essentially the same feeling, only excited by different 
objects or occurrences. We wonder at a comet, from 
its novelty ; we are surprised to meet a friend in Edin- 
burg whom we believed to be in London ; but it is 
the novel and unexpected situation in which we see 
him that causes the surprise, and not the appearance 
itself. Dr. Brown distinguishes the emotion of Won- 
der from those of Beauty and Grandeur, and very just- 
ly observes, i that we may be struck at the same time 
with the beauty or grandeur of a new object; and our 
mixed emotion of the novelty and beauty combined will 
obtain the name of Admiration ; ' p. 57. — Some 
men's intellects do not easily or accurately discriminate 
between the possible and the impossible ; — this prob- 
ably arises from the predominance of Wonder over 
Causality and Conscientiousness. — Established. 



19. IDEALITY. 

This organ is situated nearly along the lower edge 
of the temporal ridge of the frontal bone. 

The faculty produces the desire of exquisiteness and 
perfection, and delights in the ' beau ideal.' The 



80 IDEALITY. 

knowing and reflecting faculties perceive qualities as 
they exist in nature; but this faculty desires something 
more exquisitely lovely, perfect, and admirable, than the 
scenes of reality. It tends to elevate and endow with 
splendid excellence every idea conceived by the mind ; 
and stimulates the other faculties to imagine scenes 
and objects invested with the qualities which it delights 
to contemplate. It is particularly valuable to man as 
a progressive being. It inspires him with a ceaseless 
love of improvement, and prompts him to form and 
realize splendid conceptions. When too powerful, it 
gives a manner of feeling and of thinking befitting the 
regions of fancy more than the abodes of men, 
(Phrenological Journal, vol. ii. p. 147.) It is essen- 
tial to the poet, painter, sculptor, and all who cultivate 
the fine arts. It corresponds to the emotion of Beau- 
ty of Dr. Thomas Brown, (vol. iii. p. 134.) A good 
endowment of it elevates and expands the other feel- 
ings and conceptions, directs them to higher objects 
than those which would be sufficient to gratify them- 
selves, and thus gives a constant tendency to, and ca- 
pacity for, refinement. A great deficiency of it leaves 
the mind in a state of homeliness or simplicity, varying 
its appearances according to the other faculties which 
predominate in the individual. The organ is larger 
in civilized than in savage nations ; in the European, 
for example, than in the Negro, American Indian, and 
New Hollander. Milton, Shakspeare, and Byron's 
poetry abound with its influence ; that of Crabbe has 
less ; and it is scarcely distinguishable in the verses of 
Dean Swift. The organ is large in Raphael, Vol- 
taire, Wordsworth, Wilkie, Burke, Haydon, 



WIT OR MIRTHFITLNESS. 81 

Henri Quatre, Francois Cordonnier ; small in 
New Hollanders, Mr. Hume, Bellingham. Haggart, 
Gordon. « — Established. 



20. WIT, or mirthfulness. 

Every one knows what is meant by Wit, and yet 
no word presents more difficulties in its definition. Dr. 
Gall observes, that, to convey a just idea of the fac- 
ulty, he could discover no better method than to de- 
scribe it as the predominant intellectual feature in Rab- 
elais, Cervantes, Boileau, Racine, Swift, Stern, 
Voltaire. In all these authors, and in many other 
persons who manifest a similar talent, the anterior-su- 
perior-lateral parts of the forehead are prominent and 
rounded. When this development is excessively large, 
it is attended with a disposition, apparently irresistible, 
to view objects in a ludicrous light. When joined with 
Combativeness and Destructiveness large, it leads to 
satire ; and even friends will then be sacrificed for 
the sake of a joke. It gives the talent also for epi- 
grams. Persons in whom this organ is small, regard 
wit as impertinence, and are offended by it. It is 
greatly aided by comparison, which suggests analogies 
and resemblances. 

This faculty was treated as an intellectual power in 
Dr. Spurzheim's first English work ; but, in his 
French and later English works, it is considered as a 
sentiment. He regards it as giving the feeling of the 
ludicrous, and producing the tendency to represent 



82 IMITATION. 

objects under this aspect, in the same way as Ideality- 
gives a feeling of the beautiful, and' also the tendency 
to elevate and adorn all the conceptions of the mind. 
Wit, according to this view, would consist in concep- 
tions formed by the higher intellectual powers, imbu- 
ed with the sentiment in question. Mr. Scott has 
given a beautiful analysis of Humor;* the talent for 
which is produced by Secretiveness acting in combina- 
tion with Wit ; the former giving the slyness, the lat- 
ter the ludicrous coloring, which together constitute 
humor. Imitation greatly aids these powers in produc- 
ing humorous effect. Mr. Hewett Watson regards 
this faculty as an intellectual power, whose function 
is to take cognizance of the intrinsic properties of 
things. According to him, the ludicrous is a mode of 
manifestation of all the faculties. The faculty in 
question produces wit as a mode of manifestation, by 
comparing or contrasting the intrinsic qualities of ob- 
jects. (See Phren. Jour. vol. vi. p. 451.) The organ 
of Wit is large in Stern, Voltaire, Henri Qua- 
tre ; and moderate in Sir J. E. Smith, Mr. Hume, 
Hindoos. — Organ established ; elementary function 
unascertained. 



21. imitation. 

One of Dr. Gall's friends desired him to examine 
his head, because he had a part of it enlarged in an un- 

Phren. Trans, p. 174. 



IMITATION. 



83 



common degree. Gall found the superior-anterior 
portion of the head, on the two sides of Benevolence, 
rising up in the form of a segment of a circle. The 
individual had a particular talent for imitation. Dr. 
Gall instantly proceeded to the Institution for the 
Deaf and Dumb, to examine the head of a scholar 
named Casteigner, who, six weeks before, had been 
received into the establishment, and had excited atten- 
tion by his prodigious powers of mimicry ; and he 
found the same configuration of head in him. These 
facts suggested the notion that this talent might depend 
on a primitive faculty, of which this was the organ. 
He afterwards verified this conclusion, by a great num- 
ber of additional observations. I have examined the 
heads of a number of distinguished artists and players, 
and found the organ uniformly large. The faculty 
gives the power of imitation in general ; and when 
joined with Secretiveness, it gives expression in the 
fine arts. It is indispensable to actors, portrait-painters, 
sculptors, and engravers ; and it gives the tendency, 
in speech and conversation, to fit the action to the 
words. It is generally active, and the organ large, in 
children. When the organ is deficient, the individual 
is destitute of flexibility of manner. He presents 
habitually the air of his predominant dispositions. 
When this organ and that of Benevolence are both 
large, the anterior portion of the coronal aspect of the 
head rises high above the eyes, is broad, and presents 
a level surface, as in Clara Fisher; when Benevo- 
lence is large, and imitation small, there is an elevation 
in the middle, with a rapid slope on each side. The 
organ is large in Raphael and Clara Fisher ; small 
n Jacob Jervis. — Established. 



(84) 

Order II. 
INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 

These faculties communicate to man and animals 
knowledge of their own internal sensations, and also of 
the external world : their object is to know existence, 
and to perceive qualities and relations. They con- 
sist of three genera : the first includes the Five Senses ; 
the second, those powers which take cognizance of ex- 
ternal objects and their relations, named Knowing or 
Perceptive Faculties ; and the third, the faculties 
which trace abstract relations, and reason, or reflect. 

Genus 1. — External Senses. 

By means of the Five Senses, man and animals are 
brought into communication with the external world. 

Each sense has two organs ; but a single impression 
is received by the mind from affections of them. Vari- 
ous theories have been formed to account for this cir- 
cumstance. Drs. Gall and Spurzheim are of opin- 
ion, that only one of the organs of a sense is active at 
the same time, and that they alternately act and rest. 
Thus, if we look through spectacles having one glass 
yellow and another blue, external objects will not ap- 



EXTERNAL SENSES. 85 

pear green, as has been reported by philosophers, and 
believed by the public; but, if the glasses are equally 
thick, and equally transparent, they will be seen blue 
or yellow, according as we look fixedly with the one 
eye or the other. If one of the glasses is thinner or 
more transparent than the other, it will give its color 
to the objects perceived. Another explanation may 
be found in the fact, that the mind has no conscious- 
ness either of the existence of the organs of sense, or 
of the functions performed by them. Hence, the per- 
ceptions of the mind are always directed to the objects 
which make the impressions, and not to the instruments 
by means of which they are experienced ; and the 
mental affection partakes of the unity of the object ex- 
citing it, and not of the duplicity of the organs through 
which the impression is transmitted. 

The functions of every sense depend on its peculiar 
organization ; and hence no preceding exercise or hab- 
it is necessary in order to acquire the special power of 
any sense. If the organization be perfect, the func- 
tions are perfect also ; and, if the former be diseased, 
the latter are deranged, notwithstanding all preceding 
exercise. Each sense is subject to its own positive 
laws. For example, we see according to the laws of 
the refraction of light ; and hence a straight rod, half 
plunged in water, appears crooked, although touch 
proves that, in this situation, it continues straight. 
This is a kind of rectification ; but it must not be con- 
founded with the doctrine which maintains, that one 
sense acquires its functions by means of another. 
Touch may show that a rod, which is plunged in water, 
and looks crooked, is straight ; but the eyes will see 
8 



86 EXTERNAL CAUSES. 

it crooked as before. The rectifications thus effected 
by the senses are mutual, and not the prerogative of 
one sense. In this view, the eyes may rectify the 
sense of touch. If, without our knowledge, a piece of 
thin paper be placed betwixt one of our fingers and 
the thumb, we may not feel but we may see it. Even 
smell and taste may rectify the senses of seeing and 
touch. Thus many fluids look like water ; and it 
would be impossible to discover them to be different 
by the sense of touch ; but it is easy to do so by smell 
and taste. 

It is difficult to point out accurately the precise lim- 
its of the functions of the senses, because, in every act 
of perception, their instrumentality is combined with 
that of the internal faculties. The senses themselves 
do not form ideas. For example, when an impres- 
sion is made upon the hand, the organs of touch there 
situated receive it, and transmit it to the brain ; and a 
faculty of the mind, through the instrumentality of an- 
other organ, perceives the object. Hence, previous to 
every perception, there must be an antecedent impres- 
sion on the organs of sense ; and the whole functions 
of these organs consist in receiving and transmitting 
this impression to the organs of the internal faculties. 
The organs of sense, in a state of' health, never pro- 
duce the impressions which result from the activity, 
except when excited by an external cause. Hence, 
whatever perceptions or impressions, received from 
external objects, can be recalled by an act of volition, 
cannot depend exclusively upon the senses; because 
we cannot excite them by an act of volition. On the 
other hand, fthat ever impression we are unable to re- 



FEELING OR TOUCH. 87 

call by an act of the Will, must depend on the senses 
alone ; for we are able to produce at pleasure ideas 
formed by our internal intellectual faculties. There 
is reason to conjecture that particular parts of the brain 
receive impressions transmitted by the external senses, 
and that it is by their instrumentality that the gourmand, 
for instance, recalls the flavor of a particular wine or 
the savor of a favorite dish. He cannot reproduce 
the part of the sensation which depends on the activi- 
ty of the nerves of taste ; but he can recall all that is 
mental in the perception or that depends on the activi- 
ty of any part of the brain. 

After these general considerations, which apply to 
all the external senses, a few words may be added on 
the specific functions of each sense in particular. 



FEELING OR TOUCH. 

Dr. Spurzheim inferred from pathological facts, 
that the nerves of motion must be distinct from the 
nerves of feeling ; and subsequent experiments have 
proved his inference to be well founded. The sense 
of feeling is continued, not only over the whole exter- 
nal surface of the body, but even over the intestinal 
canal. It gives rise to the sensations of pain and 
pleasure ; of the variations of temperature ; and of 
dryness and moisture, These cannot be recalled by 
the will ; and I therefore consider them as depending 
on the sense alone. The impressions made upon this 
sense serye as the means of exciting in the mind per- 



88 TASTE. SMELL. 

ceptions of figure, of roughness and smoothness, and 
numerous other classes of ideas ; but the power of 
experiencing these perceptions, is in proportion to the 
perfection of certain internal faculties, and of the 
sense of touch jointly, and not in proportion to the 
perfection of this sense alone. 



TASTE. 

The functions of this sense are, to produce sensa- 
tions of taste alone ; and these cannot be recalled by 
the will. We may judge of the qualities of external 
bodies by means of the impressions made on this 
sense ; but to form ideas of such qualities is the prov- 
ince of the internal faculties. 



SMELL. 

By means of smell, the external world acts upon 
man and animals from a distance. Odorous particles 
are conveyed from bodies, and inform sentient beings 
of the existence of the substance from which they 
emanate. The functions of smell are confined to the 
producing of agreeable or disagreeable sensations, 
when the organ is so affected. These cannot be re- 
produced by an effort of the will. Various ideas are 
formed of the qualities of external bodies, by the im- 
pressions which they make upon this sense; but these 
ideas are formed by the internal faculties of the mind. 



(89) 



HEARING. 

In new-born children this sense is not yet active ; 
but it improves by degrees, and in proportion as the 
vigor of the organ increases. Its proper function is 
the production of the impressions called Sounds; yet 
it assists a great number of internal faculties. The 
auditory nerve has a more intimate connexion with the 
organs of the moral sentiments than with those of the 
intellectual faculties. 



SIGHT. 

This fifth and last of the senses, is the second of 
those which inform man and animals of remote objects, 
by means of an intermedium ; and which, in this in- 
stance, is Light. This sense has been said to acquire 
its functions by touch or by habit. But vision depends 
on the organization of the eye, and is weak or ener- 
getic, as the organization is imperfect or perfect. 
Some animals come into the world with perfect eyes ; 
and these see distinctly from the first. The young 
chicken is guided, immediately on escaping from the 
shell, by the sense of sight ; and the sparrow, on tak- 
ing its first flight from the nest, does not strike its head 
against a wall, or mistake the root of a tree for its 
branches ; and yet, previously to their first attempts, 
8* 



90 SIGHT. 

these animals can have no experience of distance. On 
the other hand, animals which come into the world 
with eyes in an imperfect state, distinguish size, form, 
and distance, only by degrees. This last is the case 
with new-born children. During the first six weeks 
after birth, their eyes are almost insensible to light ; 
and it is only by degrees that they become fit to per- 
form their natural functions. When the organs, how- 
ever, are matured, children see, without the aid of 
habit or education, in the same manner, and as accu- 
rately, as the greatest philosopher. The eye only re- 
ceives, modifies, and transmits the impressions of light; 
and internal faculties form conceptions of the figure, 
color, distance, and other attributes of external ob- 
jects ; the pow 7 er of forming these conceptions is in 
proportion to the perfection of the eyes and the or- 
gans of the internal faculties jointly. 



(91) 



Genus II. — Perceptive Faculties, 

The faculties now to be treated of, take cognizance 
of the existence and physical qualities of external ob- 
jects. They correspond in some degree, to the Per- 
ceptive Powers of the metaphysicians, and form ideas. 
Their action is attended with a sensation of pleasure, 
but (except in the case of Tune) it is weak, compared 
to the emotions produced by the faculties already 
treated of; and the higher the functions, the less vivid 
is the emotion attending the active state. In judg- 
ing of the size of the intellectual organs, the extent 
to which the anterior lobe of the brain stretches for- 
ward before Constructiveness, and rises upwards above 
the eyes, ought to be observed. 



22. INDIVIDUALITY. 

This organ is situated in the middle of the lower 
part of the forehead. When large, it produces prom- 
inence and breadth between the eyebrows at the top 
of the nose ; when small, that part is narrow. The 
faculty gives the desire, accompanied with the ability, 
to know objects as mere existences, without any view 
to the purposes to which they may be subservient. It 
gives the notion of substance, and forms the class of 
ideas represented by nouns when used without an ad- 



92 INDIVIDUALITY. 

jective ; as rock, man, horse. It takes its direction 
towards particular objects, in preference toothers, from 
the other faculties with which it is combined. It 
prompts to observation, and is a great element in a ge- 
nius for those sciences which consist in a knowledge 
of specific existences, such as natural history. Indi- 
viduals in whom it is large, experience a positive de- 
light in becoming acquainted with natural objects, 
without reference to their uses or other qualities — 
a pleasure which is incomprehensible, and appears 
trifling, to persons in whom the organ is small. This 
faculty leads to personification, or the tendency to as- 
cribe existence to mere abstractions of the mind, such 
as Ignorance, Folly, or Wisdom. When aided by 
Eventuality and Comparison, it produces the meta- 
phorical writing which distinguishes Bunyan. The 
organ is small in the Scots, in general ; it is large in 
the English, and still larger in the Fren c h . The 
frontal sinus is generally found in the situation of this 
organ in adults, and this throws a difficulty in the way 
of judging of its size. The function, however, is as- 
certained by observing young persons, in whom the 
sinus is not formed, and by the negative evidence ; 
that is, when externally there is a depression, the 
brain in that part is necessarily small, and the mental 
power is invariably found weak. This concomitance 
of deficiency of organ and power proves the function ; 
although, when there is an external elevation, the facul- 
ty may not be invariably strong, on account of the 
swelling outwards, in some individuals, being caused 
by the sinus and not by the brain. — Established. 



(93) 



23. FORM. 

The size of this organ is indicated by the width 
between the eyes ; the different degrees of which cor- 
respond to the greater or less development of the por- 
tions of brain situated on the mesial or inner side of 
the orbitary plates of the frontal bone, on each side 
of the crista galli. In some instances the frontal si- 
nus affects this organ. The function of the organ is 
to judge of Form. It aids the mineralogist, portrait 
painter, and all persons engaged in the imitative arts. 
It gives the power of distinguishing faces. Dr. Spurz- 
heim mentions, that it is large in the Chinese whom 
he had seen in London, and also in the French. 
Children, in whom this organ, together with those of 
Constructiveness, Secretiveness, and Imitation are 
large, frequently draw, cut, or scratch the figures of 
men and animals for their amusement. Large in 
King George HI., and in the Chinese skulls. — Es- 
tablished. 



24. size. 

Persons are found who have an intuitive facility in 
estimating Size, and in whom the powers of distin- 
guishing Form and relative position are not equally 
strong ; and the part of the brain under No. 21, has 



94 WEIGHT OR RESISTANCE. 

been observed in such individuals to be large. It 
gives the power of perceiving and judging of perspec- 
tive. Some officers in the army, in forming their 
companies into line, estimate the space which the men 
will occupy with perfect accuracy, and others can nev- 
er learn to judge correctly of this requisite ; and the 
organ has been observed largely developed in the for- 
mer. Locality also may conduce to this talent. As 
the frontal sinus throws a difficulty in the way of ob- 
serving this organ also, the negative evidence is chiefly 
to be relied on ; and it is stated as only probable. 
Large in Brunel, Williams, Douglas j small in 
Ferguson. 



25. weight or resistance. 

There seems to be no analogy between the weight 
or resistance of bodies, and their other qualities. They 
may be of all forms, sizes and colors, liquid or solid, 
and yet none of these features would necessarily im- 
ply that one was heavier than the other. This quality, 
therefore, being distinct from all others, we cannot 
logically refer the cognizance of it to any of the facul- 
ties of the mind, which judge of the other attributes 
of matter; and, as the mental power undoubtedly ex- 
ists, there appears reason to conjecture, that it may be 
manifested by means of a special organ. Persons 
who excel at archery and quoits, also those who find 
great facility in judging of momentum and resistance 
in mechanics, are observed to possess the parts of the 



COLORING. 95 

brain lying nearest to the organ of Size largely devel- 
oped i and so many instances of this kind have occur- 
red, that the situation of the organ is now marked on 
the plate. Mr. Simpson conceives the faculty to pro- 
duce the instinctive power of adapting animal move- 
ments to the laws of equilibrium. (See Phren. Jour, 
vol. ii. p. 302.) In turners, 1 have observed the or- 
gan largely developed ; and it may now be stated as 
probable. The frontal sinus, when very large, ex- 
tends to this organ, and renders its ascertainment diffi- 
cult. Large in Maclachlan. 



26. coloring. 

Several of the metaphysicians were aware, that a 
person may have very acute vision, and yet be desti- 
tute of the power of distinguishing colors ; but habit 
and attention have, as usual, been adduced to solve 
the difficulty. Observation enables us to prove that 
those who have a great natural power of perceiving 
colors, have a large development of that portion of the 
brain situated under the middle of the arch of the eye- 
brows, enclosed by the lines 26 ; whilst those who can- 
not distinguish minute shades of color have this portion 
small. Dr. Spurzheim mentions, that a large devel- 
opment of it is indicated by an arched appearance in 
the middle of the eye-brow, and that this sign is found 
in the portraits of Rubens, Titian, Rembrandt, 
Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorraine, he. ; but its 
large size is also indicated by the projection forwards 



96 COLORING. 

of this part of the eye-brow, without arching. It 
presents this appearance in the masks of the late Sir 
Henry Rakburn, Wilkir, Haydon, and other emi- 
nent painters. In the masks of Mr. James Milnjs 
and Mr. Sloane, and in the heads of several other 
gentlemen, who are unable to discriminate colors, this 
part of the head recedes, so that in some the eye pro- 
jects beyond it. The faculty gives the perception of 
color, their shades, harmony, and discord ; but the re- 
flecting faculties adapt them to the purposes of paint- 
ing. It is generally more powerful in women than in 
men ; and, accordingly, some women, as colorists, 
have equalled the masters among men ; while, as 
painters, women in general have always been inferior 
to the other sex. A large endowment of this faculty 
renders the sight of flowers and enamelled meadows 
pleasing. It aids the flower-painter, enameller, dyer, 
and, in general, all who occupy themselves with col- 
ors. Its great energy gives a passion for colors, but 
not necessarily a delicate taste in them. Taste de- 
pends upon a perfect rather than a very powerful ac- 
tivity of the faculties. In several oriental nations, for 
example, the faculty appears, from their love of col- 
ors, to be strong, and, nevertheless, they display bad 
taste in the application of them. — The organ is now 
considered as established. 



(97) 



Genus III. — Intellectual Faculties 

WHICH PERCEIVE THE RELATIONS OF 
EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

27. LOCALITY. 

Dr. Gall, in his youth, had good eyes, but he 
could not recognize places where he had formerly 
been. One of his school-fellows, named Scheidler, 
possessed the faculty of doing so in a high degree. 
Without the aid of artificial marks, he retraced in a 
forest, the bushes in which they had discovered nests. 
Dr. Gall moulded this individual's head, and observed 
the part now marked as the organ of Locality largely 
developed. This gave him the first idea of its func- 
tion, and he afterwards compared, very extensively, 
the size of this cerebral portion with the degree of lo- 
cal memory possessed by individuals, and he found 
them proportionate. 

This faculty conduces to the desire for travelling, 
and constitutes a chief element in the talent for topog- 
raphy, geography, astronomy, and landscape painting. 
It gives what is called ' coup d'oeil,' and judgment of 
the capabilities of ground. It is necessary to the mil- 
itary draughtsman ; and is of great importance to a 
general in war. The organ is large in the heads of 
astronomers, as Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Tvcho 
Brahe', Descartes ; and also of landscape painters j 
9 



98 NUMBER. 

and travellers, as Captain Cook. Dr. Gall mentions 
that he had observed the organ large in distinguished 
players at chess ; and he conceives their talent to con- 
sist in the faculty of conceiving clearly a great num- 
ber of the possible positions of the men. Joined with 
Individuality, Size and Comparison, it gives a genius 
for geometry. The lower animals possess the faculty 
and organ ; and display great powers of retracing 
their way, when removed from their habitations. The 
instinctive tendency of several species of them to mi- 
grate at certain seasons, is inferred to be connected 
with the periodical excitement of this organ. The 
frontal sinus occurs occasionally, but not generally, at 
the seat of Locality. The positive evidence is strong, 
and the negative irresistible ; the organ is therefore 
held to be established. It is large in the companion 
of Gall, Williams, Strath, Douglas ; generally 
moderate in females* 



28. NUMBER. 

Some individuals, remarkable for their great talent 
of calculating, excited the attention of Dr. Gall. He 
found even children who excelled in this faculty. Thus, 
a boy of thirteen years of age, born at St. Poelton, 
not far from Vienna, excelled his school-fellows sur- 
prisingly in this respect. He learned with facility a 
very long series of numbers, performed the most com- 
plicated arithmetical calculations from memory, and 
very soon found their true result. Mr. Manteli, 



ORDER. 99 

a counsellor of the Court of Appeals, at Vienna, took 
a particular pleasure in the solution of arithmetical 
problems ; and his son of five years of age resembled 
him in this talent. In this country, Mr. Zerah Col- 
burn, and Mr. George Bidder, lately exhibited in 
public a similar talent. In such individuals, the arch of 
the eye-brow is either much pressed downward, or 
there is an elevation at the external angle of the orbit. 
This sign is the result of a great development of the 
part of the brain situated behind this place. The 
special function of the faculty seems to be to give the 
conception of number and its relations. Arithmetic, 
algebra, and* logarithms belong to it ; — but the other 
branches of mathematics, as geometry, are not the 
simple results of this faculty. The organ appears 
large in the portraits of Euler, Kepler, Napier, 
Gassendi, La Place, he. and in Jedidiah Buxton, 
who possessed the faculty in a surprising degree. It 
is large in Bidder, Humboldt, Colburn : small in 
the French M. D. — It is held to be established. 

It is still doubted whether the lower animals possess 
ihis organ and faculty or not, 



29. order. 

Order supposes a plurality of objects ; but one 
may have ideas about a number of things and their 
qualities, without considering them in any order what- 
ever. Every arrangement of external things is not 
equally agreeable to the mind ; and the disposition to 



100 ORDER. 

be delighted with order, and distressed by disorder, 
is not in proportion to the endowment of any other 
faculty. There are individuals who are martyrs to the 
love of order, who are distressed beyond measure by 
the sight of confusion, and highly satisfied when every 
thing is well arranged. These persons have the or- 
gan in question large. The sort of arrangement, 
however prompted by this faculty, is different from, 
although perhaps one element in, that philosophical 
method which is the result of the perception of the 
relation of things. The faculty of which we here 
speak, gives method and order in arranging objects, 
as they are physically related ; but philosophical or 
logical inferences, the conception of systematizing or 
generalizing, and the idea of classifications, are formed 
by the reflecting faculties. Dr. Spurzheim mentions, 
that the Sauvage de PAveyron, at Paris, though an id- 
iot in a very high degree, cannot bear to see a chair 
or any other object out of its place ; and as soon as 
any thing is deranged, he, without being excited to it, 
directly replaces it. He saw also in Edinburgh a girl, 
who in many respects was idiotic, but in whom the 
love of order was very active. She avoided her 
brother's apartment, in consequence of the confusion 
which prevailed in it, I have seen remarkable exam- 
ples both of large development and deficiency of the 
organ, attended with corresponding manifestations ; and 
regard the function as ascertained. At the same time, 
as the organ is small, and the angle of the frontal bone 
is contiguous, there is a difficulty in observing it ; and 
it is by extreme cases alone that conviction will be 
produced. It is large in French M, D., in Douglas^ 



EVENTUALITY. 101 

in Mask named * order large,' and in Humboldt, the 
traveller; small in Anne Ormerod. — Established. 



30. eventuality. 

Dr. Gall observed different persons, who, though 
not always profound, were learned, had a superficial 
knowledge of all the arts and sciences, and knew 
enough to be capable of speaking on them with facili- 
ty : — such men are deemed brilliant in society. He 
found that, in them, the middle part of the forehead 
was very prominent, and the anterior inferior part of 
the brain much developed. He first named the part 
the organ of the memory of things; but having ob- 
served that persons gifted with a great memory of this 
kind, enjoy, in general, prompt conception, with a 
great facility in apprehending details ; that they have 
a strong desire for knowledge, and are also frequently 
fond of teaching, he subsequently gave it the appella- 
tion of the Sense of Things, ' Sens d'educabilite, de 
perfectibiliteS He adds, that persons in whom this 
organ is large, and in whom the reflecting organs are 
not equally developed, are prone to adopt new theo- 
ries, to embrace the opinions of others, and have a 
great facility in accommodating themselves to the cus- 
toms, manners, and circumstances with which they are 
surrounded. 

Dr. Spurzheim has named the faculty Eventuality, 
the function of which may be thus described. A 
horse, when at rest, may be considered merely as an 
9* 



102 EVENTUALITY. 

existing being ; and, as such, it is the proper object of 
Individuality. But the horse grows from birth to ma- 
turity ; its lungs play, its blood circulates, its muscles 
contract; also, it walks, trots, or gallops; these are its 
active phenomena, and of them Eventuality takes cog- 
nizance. Individuality seeks the kinds of knowledge 
indicated by nouns ; while Eventuality is conversant 
with occurrences designated by verbs. 

The organ is early and largely developed in chil- 
dren, and the faculty is strongly manifested by them. 
It is of importance not only in philosophy, but also in 
the affairs of life. It prompts to investigation by exper- 
iments. It greatly aids in producing a talent for all 
practical business involving details ; and hence, to the 
medical practitioner, the lawyer, and merchant, it is of 
essential advantage. It is an element in the talent for 
narration. 

This organ is possessed by the lower animals. Dr. 
Gall considers the faculty in them to produce the ca- 
pacity for education ; and he gives a scale of the heads of 
animals, from the crocodile and frog to the elephant, with 
the view of proving that the more this part of the brain 
is developed in each species, the higher are its natural 
susceptibilities of being tamed and taught. Dr. Spqrz- 
heim justly remarks, that this organ does not fill the 
whole forehead, and that the others situated there, also 
contribute to the effects observed by Dr. Gall, The 
observation of the latter, therefore, is deficient in pre- 
cision, rather than in truth ; for this faculty unquestion- 
ably adds to the capacity of the lower animals for 
profiting by instruction, although it is not the sole 
source of it. 



TIME. 103 

Individuality and Eventuality, both large, communi- 
cate to the orator or author that power of observation 
which enables him to seize objects and incidents pre- 
sented to his mind, to store them up, and to recal and 
apply them when required, so as to give substance to 
his mental productions. The minute enumeration of 
things and occurrences, which communicates so pleas- 
ing an interest, and an air of truth, to the fictitious 
narratives of Le Sage, De Foe, Dean Swift, and 
the Author of Waverley, depends chiefly on these pow- 
ers. When these organs are small, the individual may 
hear, see, or read many facts, but they make only a 
faint impression, and soon vanish from the mind. 
Such a person retains only general ideas ; he feels a 
difficulty in becoming learned, and is not able to com- 
mand his knowledge without previous preparation. — 
Established. 



31. TIME. 

The power of conceiving Time, and of remember- 
ing circumstances connected by no link, but the re- 
lation in which they stand to each other in chronology, 
and also the power of observing lime in performing 
music, is very different in different individuals. We 
have a few observations in evidence of this organ ; but 
the organ is stated as only probable. The special fac- 
ulty seems to be the power of judging of lime, and of 
intervals in general. By giving the perception of 
measured cadence, it appears to be the chief source of 



104 TUNE* 

pleasure in dancing. It is essential to music and ver- 
sification. The talent of using tenses properly in com- 
position seems to depend on it. An excellent essay- 
on this faculty by Mr. Simpson, will be found in Phre- 
nological Journal, vol. ii. p. 134. — Probable. 



32. TUNE* 

The organ of Tune bears the same relation to the 
ears, as the organ of color does to the eyes. The ear 
receives the impressions of sounds, and is agreeably 
or disagreeably affected by them ; but the ear has no 
recollection of tones, nor does it judge of their rela- 
tions : it does not perceive the harmonies of sound ; 
and sounds, as well as colors, may be separately pleas- 
ing, though disagreeable in combination. A great de- 
velopment of the organ enlarges the lateral part of the 
forehead ; but its form varies according to the di- 
rection and form of the convolutions. Dr. Spurz- 
heim observes, that in Gluck and others, this or- 
gan had a pyramidal form ; in Mozart, Viotti, Zums- 
teg, Dussek, Crescentini, and others, the ex- 
ternal corners of the forehead are enlarged, but 
rounded. Great practice is necessary to be able to 
observe this organ successfully ; and beginners should 
place together two persons whose heads and temper- 
aments have a general resemblance, but one of whom 
possesses a genius for music, and the other can scarce- 
ly distinguish between any two notes, and mark the 
difference of their heads. The superior development 
of the former will be perceptible at a glance. The 



LANGUAGE. 105 

faculty gives the perception of melody ; but this is only 
one ingredient in a genius for music. Time is requi- 
site to a just perception of intervals, — Ideality, to give 
elevation and refinement, — Secretiveness and Imitation, 
to produce expression ; and Constructiveness, Form, 
Weight, and Individuality are requisite besides, to sup- 
ply mechanical expertness, necessary to successful per- 
formance. This combination occurs in Mr. Kalbren- 
ner, and other eminent composers and performers, 
Mr. W. Scott has published an- admirable essay on 
this subject, in the Phrenological Journal, vol. ii. p. 170. 
Dr. Spurzheim mentions, that the head and skulls 
of birds which sing, and of those which do not sing, 
and the heads of the different individuals of the same 
kind, which have a greater or less disposition to sing, 
present a conspicuous difference at the place of this 
organ. The heads of males, for instance, and those 
of females of the same kind of singing birds, are easily 
distinguished by their different development. The organ 
is large in Hayden, Macvicar; small in Sloane. — 
Established. 



33. LANGUAGE. 

A large development of this organ is indicated by 
the prominence and depression of the eyes ; this ap- 
pearance being produced by convolutions of the brain 
situated in the posterior and transverse part of the up- 
per orbitary plate, pressing the latter, and with it ihe 
eyes, more or less forward, downward or outward, 



106 LANGUAGE. 

according to the size of the convolutions. If the 
fibres be long, they push the eye as far forward as the 
eye-brows ; if they are only thick, they push them to- 
wards the outer angle of the orbit, and downwards.* 
The special faculty of this organ is to enable us to ac- 
quire a knowledge of, and to give us the power of 
using, artificial signs or words. Persons who have a 
great endowment of it abound in words. In ordinary 
conversation their language flows like a copious stream ; 
— in a speech they pour out torrents. When this or- 
gan is large, and those of reflection small, the style of 
writing or speaking will be verbose, cumbersome, and 
inelegant ; and when this difference is very great, the 
individual in ordinary conversation is prone to repeat, 
to the inconceivable annoyance of the hearer, the 
plainest sentences again and again, as if the matter 
were of such difficult apprehension, that one telling 
was not sufficient to convey the meaning. This prac- 
tice appears to originate in an immoderate power and 
activity of the faculty of language ; so great, that delight 
is felt in mere articulation, independent of reflection. 
When the organ is very small, there is a want of com^ 
mand of expression, a painful repetition of the same 
words, and a consequent poverty of style, both in writ- 
ing and speaking. The style of that author is gen- 
erally most agreeable in whom the organs of language 
and reflection bear a just proportion to each other. If 
the intellectual powers be very acute and rapid, and 
Language not in proportion, a stammer in speech is 

* The organ of Form produces only distance between the eyes, — r 
without rendering them prominent, or pushing them downward, 



LANGUAGE. 107 

frequently the consequence. Eventuality and Com- 
parison greatly assist this faculty, when applied to the 
acquisition of foreign languages and grammar. I have 
observed that boys who are dux in classes for languages, 
generally have these two organs large, and that this 
endowment, with moderate langage, accomplishes more, 
in the way of scholarship, than a large development of 
the latter organ, with a small endowment of the former. 
Such individuals nave a great facility in, recollecting 
rules, as matters of fact and detail, in tracing etymol- 
ogies, and in discriminating shades of meaning ; and 
the combination alluded to gives them great readiness 
in using their knowledge, whatever the extent of it 
may be. 

The signification of words is learned by other facul- 
ties : For example, this faculty may enable us to learn 
and remember the word Melodv : but if we do not 
possess the faculty of Tune, we can never appreciate 
the meaning attached to that term by those who pos- 
sess that faculty in a high degree. This principle re- 
moves an apparent difficulty that sometimes presents 
itself. A person with a moderate organ of Language 
will sometimes learn songs, poetry, or particular speech- 
es by heart, with considerable facility and pleasure ; 
but in all such cases, the passages so committed to 
memory will be found highly interesting to his other 
powers, such as Ideality, Causality, Tune, Veneration, 
Combativeness, Adhesiveness ; and that the study and 
recollection of pure vocables is to him difficult and dis- 
agreeable. To a person, on the other hand, in whom 
the organ is decidedly large, pure words are interest- 
ing, and he can learn them without caring much about 



108 FUNCTIONS OF INDIVIDUALITY. 

their meaning. Hence, also, a person with a mode- 
rate organ of language, and good reflecting organs, 
may, by perseverance, learn languages, and attain to 
proficiency as a scholar ; but he will not display co- 
piousness, fluency, and richness of expression in his 
style, either in his own, or in a foreign tongue. — 
Large in companion of Gall, Sir J. E. Smith, Hum- 
boldt, Voltaire ; small in Fraser. — Established. 



functions of individuality, distinct from those 
of the other knowing e aculties. 

In the preceding pages, it is stated, that the faculty 
of Form perceives the forms of objects ; — Coloring 
their color ; — Size their dimensions; and that Indi- 
viduality takes cognizance of existences in general. 
The question naturally occurs, if the minor knowing 
powers apprehend all the separate qualities of external 
objects, what purpose does Individuality serve in the 
mental economy ? Its function is to form a single in- 
tellectual conception out of the different items of infor- 
mation communicated by the other knowing faculties. 
In perceiving a tree, the object apprehended by the 
mind is not color, form, and size, as separate qualities ; 
but a single thing or being, named a tree. The mind 
having, by means of Individuality, obtained the idea 
of a tree, as an individual existence, may analyze it, 
and resolve it into its consituent parts of form, color, 
magnitude ; but the contemplation of it in this manner 



FUNCTIONS OF INDIVIDUALITY. 109 

js at once felt to be widely different from the concep- 
tion attached to the word Tree as a whole. The func- 
tion of Individuality, therefore, is to embody the sepa- 
rate elements furnished by the other knowing faculties 
into one, and to produce out of them conceptions of 
aggregate objects as a whole; which objects are after- 
wards viewed by the mind as individual existences, 
and are remembered and spoken of as such, without 
thinking of their constituent parts. Children early use 
and understand abstract terms, such as tree, man, ship; 
and the organ of Individuality is prominently developed 
in them. , 

Farther, Form, Color, and Size, furnish certain ele- 
mentary conceptions, which Individuality unites and 
conceives, as the being called a Man. The faculty of 
Number called into action gives the idea of plurality ; 
that of Order furnishes the idea of gradations of rank 
and arrangement. Now, Individuality, receiving the 
intimations of all these separate faculties, combines them 
again, and contemplates the combination as an individ- 
ual object, and this is an army. After the idea of an 
army is thus formed, the mind drops the recollection 
of the constituent parts, and afterwards thinks of the 
aggregate only, or of the combined conception formed 
by individuality ; and regards it as a single object. 

It is interesting to observe the Phrenological Sys- 
tem, which, at first sight appears rude andunphilosoph- 
ical, harmonizing thus simply and beautifully with Na- 
ture. Had it been constructed by imagination or re- 
flection alone, it is more than probable that the objec- 
tion of the minor knowing faculties rendering Individ- 
uality superfluous, would have appeared so strong and 
10 



110 FUNCTIONS OF INDIVIDUALITY. 

unsurmountable, as to have insured the exclusion of 
one or other as unnecessary ; and yet, until both were 
discovered and admitted, the formation of such terms 
as those we have considered, was altogether inexpli- 
cable. 



(Ill) 



Genus IV. — Reflecting Faculties. 

The intellectual faculties which we have consider- 
ed, give knowledge of objects and their qualities, and 
of events ; those to which we now proceed, produce 
ideas of relation, or reflect. They minister to the di- 
rection and gratification of all the other powers ; and 
constitute what we call Reason or Reflection. 



34. COMPARISON. 

Dr. Gall often conversed on philosophical subjects 
with a sgavant, possessing much vivacity of mind. When- 
ever the latter was put to difficulty in proving rigorous- 
ly his positions, he had always recourse to comparison. 
By this means he in a manner painted his ideas, and 
his opponents were defeated and carried along with 
him, effects which he could never produce by simple 
argument. As soon as Dr. Gall perceived that, in 
him, this was a characteristic trait of mind, he exam- 
ined his head, and found an eminence of the form of 
a reversed pyramid in the upper and middle portion of 
the frontal bone. He confirmed the observation by 
many subsequent instances. He names it ' perspicaci- 
ty, sagacity, esprit de comparaison. 9 

The faculty gives the power of perceiving resem- 
blances, similitudes and analogies. Tune may com- 



112 COMPARISON. 

pare different notes ; Color contrast different shades ; 
but Comparison may compare a Shade and a Note, a 
Form and a Color, which the other faculties by them- 
selves could not accomplish. This faculty prompts 
to reasoning, but not in the line of necessary conse- 
quence. It explains one thing by comparing it with 
another ; and those in whom it is predominant are in 
general more ready and plausible than sound in their 
inferences. It gives c ingenuity in discovering unex- 
pected glimpses and superficial coincidences, in the 
ordinary relations of life ; J and great power of illus- 
tration. It is the largest organ in the forehead of the 
late Right Honorable William Pitt. In popular 
preachers it is generally fully developed. It is more 
rarely deficient than any other intellectual organ ; and 
the Scripture is addressed to it in a remarkable de- 
gree, being full of analogies and comparisons. It 
prompts to the invention and use of figurative lan- 
guage ; and the speech of different nations is more or 
less characterized by this quality, according to the 
predominance of the organ. Dr. Murray Patter- 
son mentions, that the Hindostanee language abounds 
in figures, and that Comparison is larger than Causality 
in the heads of the Hindoos in general. From giving 
power of illustration and command of figures, it is of 
great importance to the poet, and it aids Wit also by 
suggesting resemblances. It is the origin of proverbs ; 
which, in general, convey instruction under figurative 
expressions. It does not determine the kinds of com- 
parison to be used ; for every one must choose his anal- 
ogies from his knowledge, or from the sphere of activ- 
ity of his other faculties. He who has Locality in a 



COMPARISON. 113 

high degree will thence derive his examples ; while 
another, in whom Form predominates, will illustrate 
from it. 

It was doubted whether this faculty gives also the 
power of discriminating differences ; and in former 
editions of this work, this talent was ascribed to wit. 
Dr. Spurzheim, however, observes, that perception of 
resemblances is the lower, and of differences, the high- 
er, degrees of the present faculty ; just as perception 
of harmony in sounds requires a lower degree of the 
musical faculties, and that of discords a higher. An 
eminent endowment of Tune is requisite to discrimi- 
nate the minutest discords, whereas an ordinary capaci- 
ty may recognize harmony, and experience pleasure 
from it ; and the same rule he conceives to apply to 
Comparison. Mr. Hewett Watson, in an ingenious 
essay, published in the Phren. Jour. Vol. vi. p. 389, 
states the opinion that the primitive function of this or- 
gan is to take cognizance of the condition in which 
beings and inanimate objects exist ; and that it com- 
pares conditions, just as Coloring compares tints, and 
Tune compares sounds. He proposes to name it Con- 
ditionality. 

The organ is large in Raphael, Roscoe, Edwards, 
Pitt, Henri Quatre, Burke, Curran, Mr. Hume, 
Hindoos ; deficient in Charibs. — * Established. 
10* 



(114) 



35. CAUSALITY. 

Individuality and Comparison take cognizance of 
things obvious to the senses. Causality looks a little 
farther than these, and perceives the dependence of 
phenomena. It furnishes the idea of causation, as 
implying something more than mere juxta-position or 
sequence, — and as forming an invisible bond of con- 
nexion between cause and effect. It impresses us 
with an irresistible conviction, that every phenomenon 
or change in nature is caused by something, and hence, 
by successive steps, leads us to the First Cause of all. 
In looking at the actions of men, it leads us to con- 
sider the motives or moving causes, from which they 
proceed. Eventuality judges of direct evidence, or 
facts ; Causality of circumstantial evidence, or that by 
inference. In a trial, a Juryman, with large Eventual- 
ity and small Causality, will have great difficulty in 
convicting on circumstantial evidence. He in whom 
Causality is large, will often feel that kind of proof to 
be irresistible. It induces us, on all occasions, to ask, 
Why, and wherefore, is this so? It gives deep pen- 
etration, and the perception of logical consequences in 
argument. It is large in persons who possess a natu- 
ral genius for metaphysics, political economy, or simi- 
lar sciences. When greatly larger than Eventuality 
and Comparison, it tends to vague generalities of spec- 
ulation, altogether inapplicable to the affairs of life ; 
and hence those in whom it predominates are not cal- 



CAUSALITY. 115 

ciliated to shine in general society. Their sphere of 
thought is too abstract to be reached by ordinary 
minds ; they feel this, and remain silent; and hence 
are reputed dull, heavy, and even stupid. A great de- 
fect of the organ renders the intellect superficial, and 
unfits the individual for forming comprehensive and 
consecutive views, either in abstract science or busi- 
ness. Coincidence only, and not Causation, is then 
perceived in events. Such persons are often admira- 
bly fitted for common situations, or for executing plans 
devised by profounder intellects ; but, if they are en- 
trusted with the duties of legislators, or directors in 
any public affair, embracing Causation, it is difficult to 
make them comprehend the natural dependencies of 
things, and to act according to them. Blind to remote 
consequences, they stigmatize as visionary all intellec- 
tual perceptions which their own minds cannot reach ; 
they reject principle as vain theory ; are captivated by 
expedients, and represent these as the beau ideal of 
practical wisdom. — The organ appears largely devel- 
oped in the portraits and busts of Bacon, Locke, 
Franklin, Kant, Voltaire, Playfair, Dr. Thom- 
as Brown ; and in the masks of Haydon, Franklin, 
Burke, Brunell, Wilkie ; moderate in Pitt, Sir 
J. E. Smith ; and very deficient in Charibs and New 
Hollanders. It is larger in the English and Germans 
in general than in the French. — Established. 



(116) 



ADAPTATION OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD TO THE IN- 
TELLECTUAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 

The human mind and the external world, having 
emanated from the same Creator, ought, when under- 
stood, to be found wisely adapted to each other ; and 
this accordingly appears, in an eminent degree, to be 
the case. If the reader will direct his attention to 
any natural or artificial object, and consider, 1st, Its 
existence ; 2d, Its form ; 3d, Its size ; 4th, Its weight ; 
5th, Its locality, or relations in space to other objects ; 
6th, The number of its parts ; 1th, The order or phys- 
ical arrangement of its parts ; Sth, The changes which 
it undergoes; 9th, The periods of time which these 
require; 10th, The analogies and differences between 
the individual under consideration and other individ- 
uals; 11th, The effects which it produces; and, lastly, 
I£ he will designate this assemblage of ideas by a 
name, he will find that he has obtained a tolerably 
complete notion of the subject. 

This order ought to be followed in teaching the 
sciences. Botany and Mineralogy are rendered intol- 
erably tedious and uninteresting to many persons, who 
really possess sufficient natural talents for studying 
them, by names and classifications being erroneously 
represented as the chief ends to be attained. A bet- 
ter method would be, to make the pupil acquainted 
with his own mental powers, to furnish him with exper- 
imental knowledge, — that these stand in definite rela- 



THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 117 

tions to external objects, and feel a positive pleasure 
in contemplating them. His attention ought then to be 
directed to the existence of the object, as in itself in- 
teresting to Individuality ; to its form, as interesting to 
the faculty of Form ; to it color, as pleasing to the 
faculty of Color; and so on with its other qualities; 
while the name, order, genus, and species, ought to be 
taught in the last place as merely designative of the 
qualities with which he has become conversant. Prac- 
tice in this mode of tuition w 7 ill establibh its advantages. 
The mind which, unexercised, regarded all forms, not 
extravagantly ugly or beautiful, with indifference, will 
soon experience delight in discriminating minute de- 
grees of elegance and expression ; and the same ef* 
feet will be produced by following a similar process of 
cultivation in regard to the other powers. The larger 
the organs the greater will be the delight ; but even 
with a moderate development much may be attained. 
Nor is it necessary to resort to schools and colleges for 
this exercise of the intellect. Objects of nature and 
art every where surround us, calculated to stimulate 
our faculties; and if the reader, as he walks in the 
country or in the town, will actively apply his various 
powers in the manner now pointed out, he will find in- 
numerable sources of pleasure within his reach, al- 
though he should not know scientific names and classi- 
fications. 



(118) 



MODES OF ACTIVITY OF THE FACULTIES. 

All the faculties, when active in a due degree, pro- 
duce actions good, proper, or necessary. It is excess 
of activity which produces abuses ; and it is probable 
that Phrenology has been discovered only in conse- 
quence of some individuals, in whom particular organs 
were very largely developed, having yielded to the 
strongest propensities of their nature. The smallness 
of a particular organ is not the cause of a faculty pro- 
ducing abuses. Although the organ of Benevolence 
be small, it does not produce cruelty ; but its deficien- 
cy may lead to the omission of duties, as it will be ac- 
companied with indifference to the miseries of others. 
When one organ is small, abuses may result from an- 
other being left without proper restraint. Thus large 
organs of Acquisitiveness and Secretiveness, combined 
with a small organ of Conscientiousness, and weak re- 
flecting faculties, may produce theft. Powerful organs 
of Combativeness and Destructiveness, with a small 
organ of Benevolence, may produce cruel and fero- 
cious actions. 

Every faculty, when in action, from whatever cause, 
produces the kind of feeling, or forms the kind of ideas, 
already explained as resulting from its natural consti- 
tution. 

The faculties which produce PROPENSITIES 
and SENTIMENTS cannot be excited to activity, 
directly by a mere act of the will. For example, we 



MODES OF ACTIVITY OF THE FACULTIES. 119 

cannot conjure up the emotions of Fear, Compassion, 
or Veneration, by merely willing to experience them. 
These faculties, however, may enter into action from an 
internal excitement of the organs ; and then the de- 
sire or emotion which each produces, will be experienc- 
ed, whether we wish to experience it or not. Thus 
the cerebellum, being active from internal causes, 
produces the usual feeling; and this cannot be avoided 
if the organ be excited. We have it in our power to 
permit or restrain the manifestation of it in action ; but 
we have no option, if the organ be excited, to expe- 
rience, or not to experience, the feeling itself. The 
case is the same with the organs of Fear, Hope, Ven- 
eration, and the others. There are times when we 
feel involuntary emotions of fear, or hope, or awe, 
arising in us, for which we cannot account ; and such 
feelings depend on the internal activity of the organs 
of these sentiments. 

' We cannot Nature by our wishes rule, 
Nor, at our will, her warm emotions cool/ 

Crabbe. 

In the second place, these faculties may be called 
into action independently of the will, by the present- 
ment of the external objects fitted by nature to excite 
them. When an object in distress is presented, the 
faculty of Benevolence starts into activity, and produ- 
ces the feelings which depends upon it. When an ob- 
ject threatening danger is presented, Cautiousness 
gives an instantaneous emotion of fear. And when 
stupendous objects are presented, Ideality inspires with 
a feeling of sublimity. In all these cases, the power 



120 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

of acting, or of not acting, is completely dependent on 
the will ; but the power of feeling, or of not feeling, 
is not so. 

In the third place, the faculties of which we are 
now speaking, may be excited to activity, or repressed 
indirectly, by an effort of the will. Thus the knowing 
and reflecting faculties have the function of forming 
ideas. Now, if these faculties be employed to con- 
ceive internally the objects fitted by nature to excite 
the propensities and sentiments, the latter will start in- 
to activity in the same manner, but not in so powerful 
a degree, as if their appropriate objects were external- 
ly present. The vivacity of the feeling, in such cases, 
will be in proportion to the strength of the conception, 
and the .energy of the propensities and sentiments to- 
gether. For example, if we conceive inwardly an ob- 
ject in distress, and Benevolence be powerful, com- 
passion w r ill be felt, and tears will sometimes flow from 
the emotion produced. In like manner, if we wish to 
repress the activity of Ideality, we cannot do so mere- 
ly by willing that the sentiment be quiet ; but if we 
conceive objects fitted to excite veneration, fear, pride, 
or benevolence, the organs of these feelings will then 
be excited, and Ideality will sink into inactivity. N. L. 
If the organ of any propensity or sentiment enter into 
vigorous activity from internal causes, it will prompt 
the intellectual faculties to form conceptions fitted to 
gratify it. 

If Cautiousness predominate in activity, the inw 7 ard 
thoughts will be directed to dismal objects ; if Benev- 
olence be active, the conceptions will be of plans for 
removing distress ; if Veneration glow with energy, the 



OF THE FACULTIES. 121 

thoughts will be of religion ; if Acquisitiveness pre- 
dominate, ideas will be formed of plans for saving and 
accumulation; if Ideality be supreme, the thoughts 
will be of splendid scenes, superior to known realities. 

As the faculties of the Propensities and Sentiments 
do not form Ideas, and as it is impossible to excite or 
recall the feelings or emotions produced by them, di- 
rectly, by an act of the will, it follows that these facul- 
ties have not the attributes of Perception, Conception, 
Memory, Imagination : they have the attribute of 
Sensation alone ; that is to say, when they are active, 
a sensation or emotion is experienced. Hence Sen- 
sation is an accompaniment of the activity of all the 
faculties which feel, and of the nervous system in gen- 
eral ; but sensation is no faculty in itself. 

The laws of the KNOWING and REFLECTING 
faculties are different : These faculties form Ideas, 
and perceive Relations ; they are subject to the will, 
or rather constitute will themselves ; and they minister 
to the gratification of the other faculties which only 
feel. 

1st, These faculties may be active from internal 
causes, and then the kinds of ideas which they are fit- 
ted to form, are presented involuntarily to the mind. 
The musician feels the notes flowing from him uncalled 
for. A man in whom Number is powerful and active, 
calculates by a natural impulse. He in whom Form 
is powerful, conceives figures by internal inspiration. 
He in whom Causality is powerful and active, reasons, 
while he thinks, without an effort. He in whom Wit 
is powerful and active, feels witty conceptions flowing 



11 



122 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

into his mind spontaneously, and even at times and 
places when he would wish them not to appear. 

2dly, These faculties may be excited by the pre- 
sentment of the external objects fitted to call them in- 
to activity ; and, 

3dly, They may be excited to activity by an act of 
volition. 

When excited by r the presentment of external ob- 
jects, the objects are perceived, and this act is called 
PERCEPTION. Perception is the lowest degree of 
activity of these faculties ; and, if no idea is formed 
when the object is presented, the individual is destitute 
of the power of manifesting the faculty, whose func- 
tion is to perceive objects of that kind. Thus, when 
tones are produced, he who cannot perceive the mel- 
ody of them, is destitute of the power of manifesting 
the faculty of Tune. When the steps of an argument 
are logically and distinctly stated, he who cannot per- 
ceive the relation betwixt the steps, and the necessity 
of the conclusion, is deficient in the power of mani- 
festing the faculty of Causality ; and so on. - Thus, 
Perception is a mode of action of the faculties which 
form ideas, and implies the lowest degree of activity ; 
but perception is no separate faculty. 

When these faculties are excited by an act of the 
Will, the ideas which they had previously formed are 
recalled : This act is named MEMORY, and it is the 
second degree of activity of each of these faculties ; 
but is no faculty itself. Tune remembers music : 
Individuality, things that exist. 

Dr. Watts seems to have anticipated, by a very 
acute conjecture, the real philosophy of Memory. He 



OF THE FACULTIES. 123 

says, i It is most probable, that those very fibres of the 
brain which assist at the first idea or perception of an 
object, are the same which assist also at the recollec- 
tion of it, and then it will follow, that the Memrbry has 
no special part of the brain devoted to its own service 
but uses all those in general which subserve our sen- 
sation, as well as our thinking and reasoning powers.'* 

Memory, in the philosophical sense, implies the no- 
tion of past time. This would be supplied by the 
faculty of Time, acting in combination with the partic- 
ular faculties which first perceived, and which, incon- 
sequence, serve to recall the past event. Thus, indi- 
viduality, recalling circumstances, without the notion 
of Time, would produce conception only ; if the idea 
of past time were added, it would be Memory. 

When the faculties are powerfully active, from in- 
ternal excitement, whether by the Will, or from natu- 
ral activity, the ideas they have previously formed are 
vividly and rapidly conceived, and the act of forming 
them is styled CONCEPTION or IMAGINATION. 
Where conceptions of absent external objects become 
vivid and permanent, through disease of the organs, the 
individual believes in the actual presence of the objects, 
and is deluded by phantoms or visions. This is the 
explanation of the cases cited in Dr. Hibbert's work 
on Apparitions. Disease of the organ of Wonder 
contributes especially to this effect. The train of ideas 
which is constantly flowing through the mind, depends 
on the internal activity of the faculties and organs, and not 
on bonds of association betwixt particular ideas them- 

* Improvement of the Mind, p. 18 ? 



124 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

selves. When the faculties are vigorous and active, 
the succession is rapid ; when weak and inactive, it is 
slow. During profound sleep, when the organs are 
entirely at rest, it ceases altogether. Conception and 
imagination, therefore, are not faculties themselves, but 
result from the third degree of activity of every facul- 
ty which forms ideas. 

And, lastly, JUDGMENT, in the philosophical 
sense, belongs to the reflecting faculties alone. The 
knowing faculties may be said, in one sense, to judge ; 
as, for example, the faculty of Tune may be agreea- 
bly or disagreeably affected, and, in this way, may be 
said to judge of sounds; but judgment, in the proper 
sense of the word, is a perception of relation, or of 
fitness, or of the connexion betwixt means and an end, 
and it belongs to a class of faculties, entirely separate, 
viz. the reflecting faculties. These faculties have 
perception, memory, and imagination also. He who 
possesses them powerfully, perceives and conceives, 
remembers and imagines, processes of deduction, or 
ideas of abstract relations, with great facility. 

Practical, Judgment in the affairs of life depends 
on a harmonious combination of all the organs, partic- 
ularly, of the propensities and sentiments, in just pro- 
portions. In order to act rightly, it is as necessary to 
feel correctly as to reason deeply. 

On these principles we are able to explain why in- 
dividuals may manifest a great power of perception, 
memory or imagination, and little judgment. If the 
several knowing faculties be vigorous in an individual, 
he will be capable of manifesting those powers in an 
eminent degree ; while, if he be deficient in the facul- 



OF THE FACULTIES. 125 

ties which reason, he will be weak in philosophic 
judgment ; and although he possesses a splendid intel- 
lectual development, if he be deficient in the organs of 
the propensities and sentiments, he will be defective in 
practical judgment. 

ATTENTION is not a faculty of the mind, but 
merely consists in a vivid application of the faculties 
which form ideas. Unless a faculty be possessed, the 
objects of which it takes cognizance cannot be attended 
to by an effort of the will. Individuality and Eventu- 
ality give the talent for observation, which is often 
named Attention. The intellectual powers are greatly 
assisted in producing attention by Concentrativeness 
and Firmness. 

ASSOCIATION. — The metaphysicians conceive 
that our thoughts follow each other in an established 
order of succession, and have attempted to find out 
the causes of it, and the circumstances which deter- 
mine the order. By reflecting on their own conscious- 
ness, they have endeavored to discover laws regulating 
the succession of ideas in mankind in general. Such 
an attempt appears to the phrenologist to be opposed 
by impossibility. If we place a number of persons on 
a hill-top, say Arthur Seat, overlooking a champaign 
country, an arm of the sea, and a great city, — one 
in whom Ideality predominates, will be enchanted 
with the beauty and magnificence of Nature ; one in 
whom Acquisitiveness is the leading propensity, will 
think of the profits of the farms, ships, and works, 
whose elevated chimneys throws clouds of smoke into 
the air ; one in whom Constructiveness prevails, will at- 
tend to the lines of the roads, and the architecture of 
11* 



126 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

the buildings ; one in whom Benevolence and Vener- 
ation predominate, will think of the sources of enjoy- 
ment spread out before him, and feel gratitude and rev- 
erence spontaneously rising in his soul, to an all-boun- 
tiful Creator. Now a metaphysician, who has also 
visited Arthur Seat, expects, by reflecting on the ideas 
which the recollection of it calls up in his own mind, 
to discover laws of association that will enable him to 
judge of the ideas which will present themselves to the 
minds of all the other persons here supposed, on its 
being mentioned in their presence. This expectation, 
however, is clearly vain ; because, the original impres- 
sions received by each individual, differed widely from 
those experienced by the others, and when the scene 
is recalled, the associated feelings and ideas of each 
must clearly be those which his peculiar mind formed 
at the first aspect of the scene. 

Association, therefore, expresses only the mutual 
influence of the faculties. Thus, although the organ 
of Causality is not the only one which perceives the 
relation of necessary consequence, it may act in asso- 
ciation, or combination, with Comparison, furnishing 
illustrations to render the argument clear, — with 
Ideality, infusing magnificence and enthusiasm into the 
conceptions, — with Tune and Imitation modulating 
the voice, and giving vivacity to the gestures ; and the 
result will be the manifestation of splendid oratory. 
Associations may be formed, also, betwixt faculties and 
signs. For example : Nature has established an as- 
sociation betwixt the external appearance of misery 
and the faculty of benevolence ; so that, on the pre- 
sentation of the appearance, the faculty enters into ac- 



OF THE FACULTIES. 127 

tivity, and generates the emotion of pity. She, in 
like manner, has connected the faculty of Tune with 
the impression called Sounds, by a link of such a kind, 
that a certain sound produces a certain feeling and per- 
ception. She has associated the faculty of Wit with 
external objects ; so that, on the presentation of cer- 
tain circumstances, instantaneous laughter is excited. 
On this association natural language is founded. The 
sign requires only to be presented, and it is understood 
in all countries, and by all nations. 

But mankind possess likewise the power of invent- 
ing and establishing arbitrary signs, to express particu- 
lar inward feelings, or particular conceptions. For 
example : The words Love, Compassion and Justice, 
are mere conventional signs, by which we, in Britain, 
agree to express three different internal feelings or 
sentiments of the mind ; but there is no natural con- 
nexion whatever betwixt the signs and the things sig- 
nified. 

Now, the way in which we learn the signification of 
these signs is this. Show us a person in a rage, and 
express his state of mind by the word ' Rage,' and af- 
terwards, every time the term is used, we understand 
it to mean that state of excitement of the mind. In 
the same way, point out the object I now write upon, 
and call it a Table, and when the word is again men- 
tioned, I conceive the thing signified by it. Hence, to 
be able to comprehend the meaning of a word, we 
must be able to feel the propensity or sentiment, or to 
form the conception of which it is the sign. A child 
of three years old, is unable to conceive the meaning 
of the word Abstraction ; because, at that age, he has 



128 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

not the power of forming abstract ideas. But he can 
conceive the meaning of the word Table, because he 
is then quite able to form a conception of that piece 
of furniture when presented to him. A person, who 
is deficient in the faculty of Tune, can never conceive 
fully what we mean by the word Melody. 

The human mind is so constituted, that any indif- 
ferent object may be selected and used as the arbitra- 
ry sign of any propensity, feeling or conception what- 
ever. I say indifferent ; for if the object stands al- 
ready in a natural relation to any faculty, it cannot be 
made the arbitrary sign of an emotion of an opposite 
faculty. For example : We might, by a mutual under- 
standing, constitute a square figure, thus |~|, the arti- 
ficial sign of the emotion termed Rage. After the 
agreement was understood, that figure would suggest 
the idea to us, just as well as the letters R, a, g, e, 
which are mere forms placed in a certain order. But 
if we were whimsical enough to make the figure of a 
sweet and smiling countenance, which likewise is 
merely a species of form, the sign of that emotion, we 
could never, by any efforts, come to associate the idea 
of rage with that figure, with facility ; for it stands al- 
ready in the situation of the natural sign of emotions 
entirely opposite. 

In the same way, we might associate feelings of 
veneration, pity, affection, or grief, with soft and slow 
notes of music ; because these notes, which themselves 
excite emotions of a specific kind, may become arbitra- 
ry signs of any other feelings of a homogeneous kind, 
which we please to attach to them. But no associa- 
tion could ever be formed, by which soft, slow, and 
delicate tones could become the artificial signs of vio- 



OF THE FACULTIES. 129 

lent rage, jealousy and fury ; because the natural 
character of such notes is directly opposite to the na- 
tural character of such feelings. 

The circumstance of an object being already the 
natural sign of a propensity, sentiment or conception 
of a certain kind, appears to be the only limit to our 
power of associating with it propensities and concep- 
tions of every other description, so as to make the ar- 
tificial signs suggest the feeling or conception signi- 
fied, to those who are acquainted with the convention. 

The rapidity or vivacity with which a feeling or 
conception is excited on presentation of the sign, will 
be in proportion to the natural perfection of the organs 
and the degree in which they have been exercised, 
but not in proportion to either of these circumstances 
singly. 

If the foregoing views be sound, the principles of 
association must be sought for in the constitution of 
the faculties, and not in the relations of particular 
ideas. In using association, therefore, as an instrument 
of artificial memory, we ought to keep always in view, 
that every individual will associate, with greatest facil- 
ity, ideas with those things which he has the greatest 
natural facility in perceiving. For example : He who 
has Number most powerful, will associate words most 
easily with numbers ; he who has Form most power- 
ful, will associate words most easily with forms ; he who 
has Locality most powerful, will associate words most 
easily with space ; and he who has Tune most pow- 
erful, will associate words most easily with musical 
notes, 



130 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

Hence, also, the influence of Association on our 
Judgment is easily accounted for. He in whom Ven- 
eration is powerful, and to whom the image of a 
saint has been from infancy presented as an object to 
be venerated, experiences an instantaneous and invol- 
untary emotion of awe and respect, every time the 
image is presented to him, or a conception of it form- 
ed, because it is now a sign which excites in him that 
feeling, and the latter excludes the reflecting faculties 
from performing their functions. Hence, until we can 
break this association, and prevent the conception of 
the image from operating as a sign to excite the facul- 
ty of Veneration into activity, we shall never succeed 
in bringing his understanding to examine the real at- 
tributes of the object itself, and to perceive its want of 
every quality that ought justly to be venerated. In 
the same way, when a person is in Love, the percep- 
tion or conception of the object beloved stirs up the 
faculties which feel, into such vivid emotion, and that 
emotion is so delightful, and the mind has so little con- 
sciousness of the real source of the fascination, that it 
is impossible to make the lover see the object with the 
eyes of a disinterested spectator. If we could once 
break the association betwixt the object and the facul- 
ties which feel, the reflecting faculties would then per- 
form their functions faithfully, and the object would be 
seen in its true colors. But, while we are unable to 
break this link, and to prevent this fascination, we may 
reason ad sempiternum., and our conclusions will never 
appear to be sound, because the premises, that is, the 
appearance of the object will never be the same to 
the party most interested in the argument, and to yg, 



OF THE FACULTIES. 131 

Thus the associations which mislead the judgment, 
and perpetuate prejudices, are associations of words 
and things with feelings or sentiments, and not associa- 
tions merely of ideas with ideas. The whole classes 
of ideas formed by the knowing and reflecting facul- 
ties, may be associated ad infinitum, and if these ideas 
do not become linked with the propensities and senti- 
ments, no moral prejudices will arise. Ideas of form, 
color, order, and impressions of melody, may be asso- 
ciated in ten thousand ways, and faults in taste may 
perhaps be the consequence ; but unless the associa- 
tion embrace feelings and sentiments also, what is call- 
ed the Heart, in common speech, is not misled. 

PLEASURE and PAIN, and also joy and grief, 
are affections of the mind arising from the exercise of 
every faculty. Every faculty, when indulged in its 
natural action, feels pleasure ; when disagreeably af- 
fected, feels pain ; consequently the kinds of pain and 
pleasure are as numerous as the faculties. Hence one 
individual in whom Benevolence is large, delights in 
generously pardoning offences, and another, in whom 
Destructiveness and Self-Esteem predominate, feels 
pleasure in taking revenge. One in whom Acquisi- 
tiveness is large, is happy in the possession of riches, 
and another in whom Veneration and Conscientious- 
ness predominate, glories in disdaining the vanity of 
mankind. Thus pain and pleasure result from, but do 
not generate, the faculties. 

PASSION is the highest degree of activity of any 
faculty, and the passions are as different as the facul- 
ties : Thus a passion for glory is the result of great 
energy and activity of the faculty of love of appro- 



132 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

bation ; a passion for money, of acquisitiveness ; 
a passion for music, of tune ; a passion for metaphys- 
ics, of causality. Hence there can be no such thing 
as factitious passions, although such passions are spok- 
en of in various books. Man cannot alter his nature, 
and every object that he can desire, must be desired 
in consequence ,of its tending to gratify some natural 
faculty. 

SYMPATHY is not a faculty, nor is it synonymous 
with moral approbation. The same notes sounded by 
ten instruments of the same kind harmonize, and blend 
softly together, to form one peal of melody. The 
cause of this is to be found in the similarity of the 
constitution and state of the strings. Each faculty of 
the human mind has a specific constitution ; and, in 
virtue of it, produces specific kinds of feelings, origi- 
nates or suggests specific kinds of ideas; and where- 
ever similar faculties are active in different individuals, 
similar feelings are experienced by each, and similar- 
ity of feeling is sympathy. Hence he who is under a 
strong feeling of Destructiveness, will delight to join 
with others in schemes of devastation. He who strong- 
ly feels Veneration will join in adoration with the most 
glowing fervor. He in whom Benevolence is very 
active, will join in schemes of charity with a melting 
soul. He who has powerful Reflecting Faculties, will 
seek the society of those who reason and reflect. He 
who has Tune in an eminent degree, will seek the 
company of those who will gratify it by producing 
pleasant sounds. He who has the Knowing Faculties 
most powerful, will seek the company of those who 
converse, but exercise little reflection : and the rea- 



OF THE FACULTIES. 133 

son of (he sympathy in each case is to be found in the 
similarity of the constitution of the faculties, in the 
particular individuals who sympathize. 

But, in the human mind, the faculties proper to man 
bear sway over those common to man and brutes : 
and hence, if one of two individuals have Acquisitive- 
ness strong, and Conscientiousness weak, while the 
other has Acquisitiveness strong, and Conscientious- 
ness strong also, these two individuals may not sympa- 
thize in their modes of gratifying the inferior propensi- 
ty ; for Conscientiousness will produce feelings of 
justice in the one, which the other, from the weakness 
of that faculty, may not experience. 

Sympathy is not synonymous with moral approba- 
tion. We approve of the actions produced by the 
lower faculties of others, only when these are guided 
by the faculties proper to man. For example, we 
never approve of Combativeness, when indulged for 
the mere pleasure of fighting ; nor of Destructiveness, 
when gratified for the mere delight of being ferocious ; 
nor of Acquisitiveness, when directed to the naked 
purpose of acquiring wealth. But we approve of the 
action of all these faculties, when directed by justice 
and understanding. On the contrary, we approve of 
the action of the sentiments proper to man, even when 
unmingled with any other motive. Thus, we approve 
of Benevolence, from the mere glow of charity ; of 
Veneration, from the inward feeling of devotion ; of 
Justice, from the pure dictates of conscientiousness. 
Indeed, actions done apparently from the impulses of 
these faculties, lose their character of purity and ex- 
cellence, in our estimation, in exact proportion to the 
12 



134 MODES OF ACTIVITY 

alloy of the inferior feelings with which we perceive 
them to be mingled. Kindness, iii which we perceive 
Interest, is always less valued than when pure and un- 
adulterated. Activity in the service of the public loses 
its merit in our eyes, in exact proportion as we per- 
ceive the motive to be the love of approbation, unmin- 
gled with conscientiousness and true benevolence. 

These facts prove the accuracy of the phrenological 
doctrine, that the higher faculties are made to govern 
the lower ; and that man is conscious of feelings, neces- 
sary, no doubt, in themselves, but of the gratification 
of which, when undirected by the superior powers, he 
himself disapproves. Even the higher sentiments, 
however, must act conformably to the understanding 
to be approved of; and excess of veneration, of be- 
nevolence, or of scrupulosity, is always regarded as 
weakness, just as excess of any lower propensity is re- 
garded as vice. 

There are some faculties, also, which, from their 
constitution, do not sympathize in different individuals 
in whom they are equally active. Thus two individu- 
als, under vivid and improper impulses of Self-Esteem 
or Love of Approbation, do not sympathize. Two 
proud men, or two vain men, repel each other, like 
similar poles of a magnet. There is something so en- 
grossing in these two faculties, that different individu- 
als, under the unrestrained influence of them, are ex- 
tremely offensive to each other. 

HABIT. — Next to Association, Habit makes the 
most conspicuous figure in the philosophy of Mr. 
Stewart ; but in Phrenology it is viewed differently. 
Dr. Johnson defines habit to be ' a power in man of 



OF THE FACULTIES. 135 

doing a thing acquired by frequent doing it.' Now, 
before it can be done at all, the faculty and organ on 
which it depends, must be possessed in an available 
degree ; and the more powerful these are, the greater 
will be the energy with which the possessor will do 
the thing at first, and the ease with which he will learn 
to repeat it. George Bidder, for example, the cele- 
brated mental calculator, acquired the habit of solving 
in his mind, without the aid of notation, and in an in- 
credibly short time, the most extensive and intricate 
questions in arithmetic and algebra. Before he could 
begin to do so, he required to possess a large organ of 
Number ; but actually possessing this, and the corres- 
ponding mental faculty, he made great and rapid prog- 
ress in the art, and at seven years established the hab- 
it, which struck ordinary persons with so much sur- 
prise. Other individuals are known, who, possessing 
a small organ of Number, have labored for years to 
acquire habits of rapid and correct calculation, but 
without success. In like manner, a boy who acquires 
a habit of quarrelling and fighting at school, manifests 
strong faculties of Combaiiveness, Destructiveness, 
and Self-Esteem ; and if these were very deficient, he 
would acquire such a habit with extreme difficulty, if 
at all. Habit, therefore, is the result of proneness to 
a certain course of action, acquired by exercise. It is 
the organ which acquires aciivity and superior facility 
in performing its functions, by being properly used, 
just as the fingers of a musician attain increased rapid- 
ity and facility of motion by the practice of playing. 

TASTE is the result of the harmonious action of 
the faculties generally, in at least a moderate degree of 



136 MODES OF ACTIVITY OF THE FACULTIES. 

vigor. Thus the most beautiful poetry is that by which 
gratification is afforded to the higher sentiments and 
intellectual powers, without the introduction of any 
impropriety, extravagance, absurdity, or incongruity to 
offend any one of them. If Ideality is in excess, this 
produces bombast ; if Causality predominates too 
much, it introduces unintelligible refinements ; if Wit 
is excessive, it runs into conceits, epigrams, and imper- 
tinences. A picture is in best taste when it delights 
the Knowing Faculties, Reflection and the moral Sen- 
timents, without offending any of them. Thus, if Col- 
oring be too strongly or too weakly exerted, the pic- 
ture will be defective in taste and its shades ; if Form 
be weak, it may be out of drawing ; if Ideality and 
Coloring predominate over Reflection, it may be glow- 
ing and striking, but destitute of dignity and meaning. 
If Language be over-powerful in an individual, his 
style will be redundant and verbose ; if it be very de- 
ficient, it will be dry, stiff, and meagre : if Individual- 
ity be excessive, he may narrate without reflection ; if 
Reflection be too strong, he will reason without pre- 
mises or facts ; if fhe animal propensities predominate^ 
he will he coarse and vulgar ; if intellect be stronger 
than sentiment, he will be acute and profound, but dry 
and uninteresting. 



(137) 



EFFECTS OF SIZE AND ACTIVITY IN THE - ORGANS, 
AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR OBSERVING DE- 
VELOPMENT. 

As c self-conviction can be obtained only by self-ob- 
servation,' every one who desires to become a Phre- 
nologist should learn to observe. A healthy brain, at 
a vigorous period of life, is the proper subject for ob- 
servation ; and, as the fundamental principle of the 
science is, that the power or energy of mental mani- 
festation bears a uniform relation, ceteris paribus, to 
the size of the organs, we must be careful not to con- 
found this quality of mind with that of mere activity 
in the faculties ; as size in the organ is an indication of 
the former, but not at all of the latter. 

In physics, power is distinguishable from activity. 
The balance-wheel of a watch moves with much rapid- 
ity ; but so slight is its impetus, that a hair would suf- 
fice to stop it : the beam of a steam-engine traverses 
slowly and ponderously through space, but its power 
is prodigiously great. 

In muscular action, these qualities are recognized 
with equal facility as different. The grey-hound 
bounds over hill and dale with animated agility ; but a 
slight obstacle would counterbalance his momentum, 
and arrest his progress. The elephant, on the other 
hand, rolls slowly and heavily along ; but the impetus 
of his motion would sweep away an impediment suffi- 
cient to resist fifty grey-hounds at the summit of their 
speed. 

12* 



138 

In mental manifestations (considered apart from or- 
ganization) the distinction between power and activity 
is equally palpable. On the stage, Mrs. Siddons se- 
mor, and Mr. John Kemble were remarkable for the 
solemn deliberation of their manner, both in declama- 
tion and action, and yet they were splendidly gifted 
with power. They carried captive at once the sym- 
pathies and understanding of the audience ; they made 
every man feel his faculties expanding, and his whole 
mind becoming greater under the influence of their 
energies. This was a display of pow 7 er. Other per- 
formers, again, are remarkable for vivacity of action 
and elocution, who, nevertheless, are felt to be feeble 
and inefficient in rousing an audience to emotion. Ac* 
tivity is their distinguishing attribute, w 7 ith an absence 
of power. At the bar, in the pulpit, and in the sen- 
ate, the same distinction prevails. Many members of 
the learned professions display great felicity of illustra- 
tion and fluency of elocution, surprising us with the 
quickness of their parts, who nevertheless, are felt to 
be neither impressive nor profound. They possess 
acuteness without power, and ingenuity without com- 
prehensiveness and depth of understanding. This al- 
so proceeds from activity with little vigor. There are 
other public speakers, again, who open heavily a de- 
bate, their faculties acting slowly, but deeply, like the 
first heave of a mountain-wave. Their words fall 
like minute-guns upon the ear, and to the superficial 
they appear about to terminate ere they have begun 
their efforts. But even their first accent is one of pow- 
er ; it rouses and arrests attention 2 their very pauses 
are expressive, and indicate gathering energy to be 



AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 139 

embodied in the sentence that is to come. When 
fairly animated, they are as impetuous as the torrent, 
brilliant as the lightning's beam, and overwhelm and 
take possession of feebler minds, by impressing them 
irresistibly with a feeling of gigantic power. N. L. 
The student should always bear in mind that the 
phrenologist does not compare general size and gener- 
al power: a man may have a small head, taken in the 
aggregate, and a powerful intellect ; but it will be 
found that in him the anterior lobe or seat of the in- 
tellect is large, and that the deficiency lies in the or- 
gans of the propensities or sentiments, or of both. In 
such cases, there will be intellectual vigor without force 
of character. 

In the introduction it is explained, that size, other 
conditions being equal, is a measure of power. The 
conditions which most generally modify the effects of 
size are, \st, Constitution or quality of brain ; 2dly, 
Particular combinations of organs ; and, 3dly, Exer- 
cise. 

1st, Constitution or quality of brain has a great in- 
fluence on the mental effects of size ; because the 
size of two brains may be equal, and, nevertheless, 
the one may be distinguished by the finest texture and 
most vigorous constitution, while the other may be in- 
ferior in quality, and naturally inert. The consequence 
will be, that only the best constituted brain will mani- 
fest the mind with vigor fully proportioned to its size. 
That size is nevertheless the measure of power, may 
be proved, by contrasting the manifestations of a 
smaller brain, equally well constituted with the larger 
one ; and the power or energy will be found greatest 



140 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

in the latter. The question naturally presents itself, 
Do we possess any index to constitutional qualities of 
brain ? The temperaments indicate them to a certain 
extent. 

There are four temperaments accompanied with 
different degrees of activity in the brain. The first, 
or lymphatic, is distinguishable by a round form of the 
body, softness of the muscular system, repletion of the 
cellular tissue, fair hair, and a pale clear skin. It is 
accompanied by languid vital actions, with weakness 
and slowness in the circulation. The brain, as a part 
of the system, is also slow, languid, and feeble in its 
action, and the mental manifestations are proportion- 
ally weak. 

The second, or sanguine constitution, is indicated 
by well-defined forms, moderate plumpness of person, 
tolerable firmness of flesh, light hair, inclining to chest- 
nut, blue eyes, and fair complexion, with ruddiness of 
countenance. It is marked by great activity of the 
blood-vessels, fondness for exercise, and an animated 
countenance. The brain partakes of the general 
state, and is active. 

The bilious temperament is recognized by black 
hair, dark skin, moderate fulness, and much firmness 
of flesh, with harshly expressed outline of the person. 
The functions partake of great energy of action, which 
extends to the brain ; and the countenance, in conse- 
quence, shows strong, marked, and decided features. 

The nervous temperament is recognized by fine thin 
hair, thin skin, small thin muscles, quickness in muscu- 
lar motion, paleness of countenance, and often deli- 
cate health. The whole nervou3 system, including 



AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 141 

the brain, is predominantly active, and the mental man- 
ifestations are proportionally vivacious.* 

The temperaments are supposed to depend upon 
the constitution of particular systems of the body; the 
brain and nerves being predominantly active from con- 
stitutional causes, produce the nervous temperament; 
the lungs, heart, and blood-vessels, being constitution- 
ally active, give rise to the sanguine ; the muscular and 
fibrous systems, to the bilious ; and the glands, and as- 
similating organs, to the lymphatic. 

Dr. Thomas, of Paris, considers, that al! the sys- 
tems of the body act with a degree of energy propor- 
tionate to their size, and that the different tempera- 
ments owe their origin to the predominance in size 
of particular systems ; for example, the function of the 
abdominal viscera is to digest food and nourish the 
body. If these be large, indicated by a full belly, 
and if the lungs and brain be relatively small, then the 
abdominal functions will preponderate, and the indi- 
vidual will resemble the ox in his dispositions : he will 
eat, digest, and fatten ; but be greatly averse from 
muscular and mental activity. This Dr. Thomas con- 
siders as the origin of the lymphatic temperament. 

The office of the lungs and heart, which fill the cav- 
tiy of the thorax, is to invigorate and circulate the 
blood. When the thorax is large, and the brain and 
abdomen relatively small, the whole system is pervaded 
by well oxygenated blood, vigorously propelled ; and 
hence life and activity are copiously communicated. 
The abdomen being small, there is no tendency to fat ; 
and the brain being inferior in relative size, there is 

* Outlines of Phrenology by Dr. Spurzheim, p* 3. 



142 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

no strong disposition to thinking. Hence the disposi- 
tions will be towards muscular exertion ; and pleasure 
will be felt in mere existence and motion. Among 
animals the lion, tiger, greyhound, represent this tem- 
perament. This constitution is viewed as the cause 
of the sanguine temperament. 

The function of the brain is to manifest the mind : 
when it is large, and the thorax and abdomen small, 
there will be great mental vivacity, with limited capac- 
ity of digestion, and little tendency to muscular action. 
Individuals so constituted will delight in mental emo- 
tion and intellectual pursuits. This is view T ed as the 
origin of the nervous temperament. 

The different temperaments are rarely found pure. 
The common mixtures are the sanguine-lymphatic ; 
the nervous lymphatic ; and the nervous bilious. 

Modifications of temperament, according to Dr. 
Thomas's theory, are also frequent. In some persons 
the brain and thorax are large, and the abdomen small; 
and then, says he, ^reat mental and muscular activity 
are combined. This was Napoleon's temperament 
in youth, In other individuals the thorax and abdo- 
men are large and the brain small ; and the conse- 
quence is fine animal health. Great capacity for bodi- 
ly exertion ; but aversion from mental exertion. Or, 
the brain, thorax and abdomen may be all large, in the 
same individual; and then he wilL be fond of eating 
and drinking ; tolerably active in his muscular func- 
tions ; and also inclined to vary his occupations by 
mental exercises.* 

* The American reader will find a very elegant and instructive 
account of the temperaments, by that distinguished phrenologist, 



AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 143 

Upon the principle before stated, that size is a 
measure of power, brains may be expected to vary in 
their general size, in proportion to the degree of men- 
tal energy possessed. Our first object, therefore, 
ought to be to distinguish the size of the brain gener- 
ally, so as to judge whether it be large enough to ad- 
mit of manifestation of ordinary vigor ; for if it be too 
small, idiocy is an invariable consequence. 

There are several bony eminences on the skull, 
which do not indicate development of brain ; such as 
the mastoid processes, immediately behind the lowest 
part of the ear; the crucial spine of the occiput sit- 
uate below philoprogenitiveness ; the zygomatic pro- 
cess extending from the cheek-bones to the temple ; 
and the ridge in the middle line of the coronal sur- 
face of the skull, occasioned by the longitudinal sinus. 
A cast of the skull, with a description of the bones 
and processes, is sold by O'Nejll and Son. 

Our second object should be to ascertain the relative 
proportions of the different parts, so as to determine 
the direction in which the power is greatest. 

It is proper to begin with the observation of the 
more palpable differences in size ; and the most im- 
portant object is to ascertain the relative proportions of 
the animal and moral groups of organs. To accom- 
plish this, a horizontal line ought to be drawn from the 
middle of Causality to the middle of Cautiousness : 
all above it belongs to the moral, and all below it to 
the animal region. The relative breadth as well as 
height of these regions ought to be attended to. 

Dr. Charles Caldwell, of Lexington, in a volume published there 
in 1831, under the title of ' Essays on Malaria and Temperament.' 



144 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

In judging of the size of the intellectual organs, the 
portion of brain anterior to Constructiveness and Be- 
nevolence should be particularly attended to. For 
this purpose, a line may be drawn from the anterior 
margin of Constructiveness to the anterior margin of 
Benevolence ; and in proportion as the brain within 
these lines projects forward, rises high, and presents a 
broad surface, will be the vigor of the intellect gener- 
ally. If, by looking en profile, a considerable mass of 
brain be observed, occupying the lower region of this 
space, and little in the upper, — this will indicate pre- 
dominance of the Knowing or Perceptive organs in 
other individuals, the upper region will be found larger 
than the lower, and this will bespeak the reflecting or- 
gans stronger than the perceptive. It is of importance 
to attend to this rule ; because sometimes the forehead 
presents a perpendicular appearance from mere defi- 
ciency in the perceptive organs ; and, in this way, when 
viewed in front, it may appear large and broad ; where- 
as, when observed in profile, little brain may be per- 
ceived in this region of the head, and in consequence 
the intellectual manifestations will be vigorous. 

In some instances, the greater mass of the brain lies 
between the ear and the forehead ; in others, between 
the ear and the occiput ; and in others above the ear 
in perpendicular height. Great differences in breadth 
are also remarkable, — some being narrow throughout, 
and some broad. Some are narrow before, and broad 
behind; and vice versa. The busts of the Reverend 
Mr. M., MaryMacinnes, Pallet, and Haggart, may 
be contrasted with this view. If the proportions of the 
parts differ, so that, in the larger head, the greatest 



AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 145 

quantity of brain lies in the lateral and posterior re- 
gions ; and, in the lesser head, the preponderance is 
in the frontal and coronal aspects, the larger head 
will then, cceteris paribus, manifest the greatest ener- 
gy in the animal propensities, and the smaller one the 
greatest power in the moral and intellectual faculties. 
These higher qualities may even be more vigorously 
manifested by the smaller than by the larger head; be- 
cause the former, although smaller in its general size, 
is, in this instance, supposed to be the larger in these 
particular regions ; — but, of course, its manifesta- 
tions of the animal propensities will be greatly inferior 
in energy to those of the larger head, the size of 
which is here supposed to lie principally in these or- 
gans. 

It is necessary to keep in view, that large size may 
consist in length or breadth, or in both. * The length 
of the organ,' says Dr. Spurzheim, ' disposes to fre- 
quent action, whilst their thickness gives more intensi- 
ty. Phrenologists attend too little to the latter dimen- 
sion, and too much to the elongation of the organ. 5 
The length of an organ is ascertained by the distance 
from the medulla oblongata to the peripheral surface. 
A line passing through the head from one ear to the 
other, would nearly touch the medulla oblongata, and 
hence the external opening of the ear is assumed as a 
convenient point from which to estimate length. The 
breadth of an organ is judged of by its peripheral ex- 
pansion ; and it is a general law of physiology, that 
the breadth of any organ throughout its whole course, 
bears a relation to its expansion at the surface : the 
optic and olfactory nerves are examples in point. 
13 



146 



SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 



Hence, if the line from the ear to the forehead be 
much larger than from the ear backward, and the 
breadth nearly the same, we infer that the intellectual 
organs predominate. If, on the other hand, the fore- 
head is very narrow, as in Thurtell, and the hind- 
head very broad, we hold the animal organs to pre- 
dominate, although the length were the same in both 
directions. Measurement by callipers is useful for 
ascertaining general size. The following are a few 
measurements from nature, taken promiscuously from 
many more in my possession. 



AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 



147 



Table of Measurements by Callipers. 



Males be 
tween 25 
and 50. 


From Occipital 
Spine to Indi- 
viduality. 


13 

%£ 

§H 

OS 

S 2 

o n 

£'3. 


a 

o . 

it 

w g 


S 

w a 
a.s 

Eh 


From Destruc- 
tiveness to De- 
structiveness. 


From Cautious- 
ness to Cau- 
tiousness. 


From Ideality 
to Ideality. 


1. 


71 


4| 


45 


55 


55 


54 


5f 


2. 


6f 


3i 


41 


51 


51 


5| 


41 


3. 


H 


45 


5| 


64 


64 


6 


5f 


4. 


n 


4 


5 


54 


6 


54 


54 


5. 


8 


45 


54 


64 


61 


6 


54 


6. 


8 


41 


4| 


55 


51 


51 


51 


7. 


74 


41 


41 


5| 


61 


55 


54 


8. 


n 


44 


4| 


5| 


55 


54 


51 


9. 


n 


H 


45 


6 


51 


51 


55 


10. 


81 


5 


51 


55 


64 


54 


54 


11. 


n 


41 


5 


55 


54 


54 


41 


12. 


74 


41 


5 


6 


51 


55 


41 


13. 


71 


41 


4| 


51 


51 


51 


51 


14. 


71 


35 


44 


51 


64 


51 


5 


15. 


71 


41 


45 


61 


6 


6 


5 


16. 


75 


41 


5f 


6 


64 


51 


5| 


17. 


75 


44 


51 


64 


64 


6} 


51 


18. 


74 


41 


5 


55 


51 


51 


45 


19. 


8 


44 


si 


61 


6 


6 


45 


20. 

Total di- 


7 


41 


41 


51 


5| 


54 


41 


151| 


86f 


991 


1164 


H9| 


1135 


103| 


1, 

1 














vided by 
20 gives 


4f 


^ 


2TT 


m 


5M 

2TJ 


5 *o- 


average 


J 















148 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

These measurements are taken above the muscular 
integuments, and show the dimensions of heads in 
these directions, whence the general size of the head 
may be inferred; but they are not given as indications 
of the absolute dimensions of any of the phrenological 
organs. The callipers are not suited for giving this 
latter information, for they do not measure from the 
medulla oblongata, nor do they indicate breadth of 
fibre. The new craniometer is preferable for ascer- 
taining absolute length, and the breadth may be judged 
of by means of the hand or eye. The average of 
these twenty heads will be higher than that of the na- 
tives of Britain generally, because there are several 
large heads among them, and none small. 

After becoming familiar with the general size and 
configuration of heads, and learning to appreciate the 
proportions which the general mass of the three orders 
of organs bears to each, the student may proceed to 
the observation of individual organs ; and in studying 
them, the real dimensions, and not the mere promi- 
nence of each organ, should be looked for. Practice, 
with at least an average endowment of the organs of 
Form, Size, and Locality, are necessary to qualify a 
person for making observations with success. Individ- 
uals whose heads are very narrow across between the 
eyes, and little developed at the top of the nose, where 
these organs are placed, experience great difficulty in 
distinguishing the situations and minute differences in 
the size of organs. If one organ be much developed, 
and the neighboring organ very little, the developed 
organ presents an elevation or protuberance ; but if 
the neighboring organs be developed in proportion, no 



AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 149 

Drotuberance can be perceived, and the surface is 
smooth. The student should learn from books, plates, 
and casts, or personal instruction (and the last is by far 
the best,) to distinguish the form of each organ, and 
its appearance, when developed in different proportions 
to the others. The phrenological bust shows only the 
situations of the organs, and their proportions in one 
head ; and it is impossible by it to communicate more 
information. The different appearances in all the va- 
rieties of relative size, must be discovered by inspect- 
ing a number of heads ; and especially by contrasting 
instances of extreme development with others of ex- 
treme deficiency. No adequate idea of the foundation 
of the science can be formed until this is done. It is 
the proportions of the organs to each other in the same 
head that determine the character. In cases of ex- 
treme size of single organs, the form delineated in the 
bust is perceived distinctly standing out in nature. 

When one organ is very largely developed, it some- 
times pushes a neighboring smaller organ a little out of 
its place. This may be distinguished by the greatest 
prominence being near the centre of the large organ, 
and the swelling extending over a portion only of the 
other.* The observer should learn, by inspecting a 
skull, to distinguish the mastoid process behind the 
ear, and several bony prominences which occur in 
every head, from elevations produced by development 
of brain; as also to discriminate bony excrescences 
sometimes formed by the sutures, when such occur. 

*In these cases, the shape should be attended to; for the form 
of the organ is then easily recognized, and is a sure indication of 
the particular one which is largely developed. 

13*° 



150 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

The terms used to denote the gradations of size in 
the different organs, in an increasing ratio, are 

Very small 
Small 
Rather small 

Captain Ross has suggested, that numerals may be 
applied with advantage to the notation of development. 
He uses decimals ; but these appear unnecessarily- 
minute. The end in view may be attained by such a 
scale as the following : — 



Moderate 


Rather large 


Rather full 


Large 


Full 


Very large 



1. 


8. Rather small 


15. 


2. Idiocy 


9. 


16. Rather large 


3. 


10. Moderate 


17. 


4. Very small 


11. 


18. Large 


5. 


12. Rather full 


19. 


6. Small 


13. 


20. Very large 


7. 


14. Full 





The intermediate figures denote intermediate de- 
grees of size, for which we have no names. The ad- 
vantage of adopting numerals would be, that the values 
of the extremes being known, we could judge accu- 
rately of the dimensions denoted by the intermediate 
numbers ; whereas it is difficult to apprehend precisely 
the degrees of magnitude indicated by the terms small, 
full, large, &c. except we have seen them applied by 
the individuals who use them. 

In designating development, Dr. Spurzheim men- 
tions only four degrees. He divides the different fac- 
ulties into orders, as Animal Feelings, Human Feel- 
ings, and Intellect, He then mentions what animal 
organs belong to the first or largest class ; what to the 
second ; what to the third ; and what to the fourth. 
He does the same with the organs of the human feel- 



AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 151 

ings, and with those of intellect. This presents at 
once an analysis of the development ; but it does not 
indicate what proportion any organ in one of the 
orders bears to any organ in another of them. The 
estimate of the size of each organ in succession, and 
then the analytic classification followed by Dr. Spurz- 
heim, appears to me to be the best method of attaining 
a complete view. 

In observing the appearance of individual organs, it 
is proper to begin with the largest, and select extreme 
cases. The mask of Mr. Joseph Hume may be con- 
trasted with that of Dr. Chalmers for Ideality. The 
casts of the skulls of Raphael and Haggart may be 
compared at the same part ; the differences being 
equally conspicuous. The cast of the Reverend Mr. 
M. may be contrasted with that of Dempsey, in the 
Love of Approbation ; the former having this organ 
large and the latter small. Self-Esteem in the latter 
being exceedingly large, may be compared with the 
same organ in the skull of Dr. Hette, in whom Love 
of Approbation is much larger than Self-Esteem. The 
organ of Constructiveness in Raphael may be com- 
pared with the same organ in the New Holland skulls. 
Destructiveness in Bellingham may be compared 
with the same organ in the skulls of the Hindoos ; the 
latter people being in general tender of life. Firmness 
large, and Conscientiousness deficient in King Robert 
Bruce, may be compared with the same organs 
reversed in the cast of the head of a lady, (Mrs. H. ; ) 
which is sold as illustrative of these organs. 

In proving the truth of Phrenology, the same organ 
is not compared in different species of animals, nor 
even in different individuals of the same species, be- 



152 

cause their constitution and exercise may differ ; but 
the size of each organ in proportion to the others in 
the head of the same individual is observed. In the 
same individual, the constitution of all the organs is 
generally, but not universally, equal, and the larger 
organs show more power and activity than the smaller. 
It is not the absolute size of the organs, or their size 
in reference to any standard head, that determines the 
predominance of particular talents or dispositions in an 
individual. Thus, in the head of Bellingham, De- 
structiveness is very large, and the organs of the moral 
sentiments and intellect are small in proportion ; and 
according to the rule, that, ceteris paribus, size deter- 
mines energy, Bellingham's most powerful tenden- 
cies'are inferred to have been towards cruelty and rage. 
In the skulls of several Hindoos, the organ of Destruc- 
tiveness is small in proportion to the others, and we 
conclude, that the tendency of such individuals would 
be weakest towards theToregoing passions. But in the 
head of Gordon, the murderer of the pedlar boy, the 
absolute size of Destructiveness is less than in the head 
of Raphael. Although, however, the absolute size of 
the organ is greater in Raphael, he was an amiable 
man of genius, and Gordon an atrocious murderer. 
This illustrates the rule now under consideration. In 
Gordon, the organs of the moral sentiments and in- 
tellectual faculties are small, and that of Destructive- 
ness is the largest in the brain ; while in Raphael, 
the moral and intellectual organs are large. On the 
foregoing principle, the most powerful manifestations 
of Raphael's mind ought to have been in the depart- 
ment of sentiment and intellect, and those of Gordon's 
mind in Destructiveness and animal passion ; and their 



AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 153 

actual dispositions corresponded. Still the dispositions 
of Raphael would be characterized by the large size 
of this organ. It would communicate that warmth and 
vehemence of temper, which are found only when it 
is large, although the higher powers would restrain it 
from abuse. 

An objection is frequently stated, that persons hav- 
ing large heads have ' little wit,' while others with 
small heads are c very clever.' The Phrenologist 
never compares mental ability in general with size of 
brain in general ; for the fundamental principle of the 
science is, that different parts of the brain have differ- 
ent functions, and that hence the same absolute quanti- 
ty of brain, if consisting of intellectual organs, may 
be connected with the highest genius ; while, if con- 
sisting of the animal organs, lying immediately above 
and behind the ears, may indicate the most fearful en- 
ergy of the lower propensities. The brains of Charibs 
seem to be equal in absolute size to those of average 
Europeans, but the chief development of the former is 
in the animal organs, of the latter in the organs of sen- 
timent and intellect ; and no Phrenologist would ex- 
pect the one to be equal in intelligence and morality 
to the other, merely because their brains are equal in 
absolute magnitude. 

In the practical application of Phrenology, we may 
compare different individuals. The first requisite is to 
see that their temperaments are the same ; the second, 
that the general size of their brains, except in the par- 
ticular organs to be compared, is the same ; and, third- 
ly, that the exercise of their powers has been equally 
attended to. If we observe in one person Tune, Ideal- 
ity, or Cautiousness very small, and in another the 



154 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

same organ "very large, we shall find a correspond- 
ing difference in the power of manifestation. It may 
however, happen, that, in the same individual, one or- 
gan is naturally more active than another, without 
reference to size ; just as the optic nerve is sometimes 
more irritable than the auditory ; but this is by no 
means a common occurrence. 

If we take two heads of the same temperament, in 
sound health, and of similar ages, in each of which all 
organs are similar in their proportions, but the one 
of which heads is large, and the other small, then, if 
the preponderance of power of manifestation is not in 
favor of the first, Phrenology must be abandoned as 
destitute of foundation. 

In comparing the brains of the lower animals with 
the human brain, the Phrenologist looks chiefly for 
the reflected light of analogy, to guide him in his re- 
searches, and does not found a direct argument in fa- 
vor of the functions of the different parts of the human 
brain, from facts observed in regard to the lower ani- 
mals ; the reason is, that such different genera of ani- 
mals are too dissimilar in constitution and external cir- 
cumstances, to authorize him to draw positive results 
from comparing them.* Many Philosophers, being 
convinced that the brain is the organ of mind, and 
having observed that the brain of man is larger than 
that of the majority of tame animals, as the horse, dog, 
ox, have attributed the mental superiority of man to 
the superiority in absolute size of his brain ; but the 
Phrenologist does not acknowledge this conclusion 

* Dr. Vimont of Paris, in his work on Human and Comparative 
Phrenology, has made an admirable and splendid contribution \o 
the science in this department 



AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 155 

as in concordance with the principles of his science. 
The brain on one of the lower creatures may be very 
large, and, nevertheless, if it be composed of parts ap- 
propriated to the exercise of muscular energy, or the 
manifestation of animal propensities, its possessor may 
be far inferior in understanding or sagacity to another 
animal, having a smaller brain, but composed chiefly 
of parts destined to manifest intellectual power.* 
Whales and elephants have larger brains than man, 
and yet their sagacity is not equal to his ; but nobody 
pretends that in these animals the parts destined to 
manifest intellect are larger, in proportion to the con- 
volutions intended to manifest propensity, than in man, 
and hence the superior intelligence of the human spe- 
cies is no departure from the general analogy of nature. 
In like manner, the brains of the monkey and dog 
are smaller than those of the ox, ass, and hog ; and yet 
the former approach nearer to man in regard to their 
intellectual faculties. To apply the principles of Phre- 
nology to them, it would be necessary to discover 
what parts manifest intellect, and what propensity, in 
each species ; and then to compare the power of man- 
ifesting each faculty with the size of its appropriate 
organ. If size were found not to be a measure of 
power, then, in that species, the rule under discussion 
would fail ; but even this would not authorize us to 
conclude, that it did not hold good in regard to man ; 
for human Phrenology is founded, not on analogy, but 
on positive observations. Some persons are pleased 
to affirm, that the brains of the lower animals consist 
of the same parts as the human brain, only on a small- 

*Spurzheim's Physiognomical System, chap. 4. 



156 SIZE AND ACTIVITY. 

er scale ; but this is highly erroneous. If the student 
will procure brains of the sheep, dog, fox, calf, horse, 
or hog, and compare them with the human brain, or 
the casts of it sold in the shops, he will find a variety 
of parts, especially in the convolutions which from the 
orgrns of the moral sentiments and the reflecting fac- 
ulties, wanting in those animals. 

Size, then, is not the only requisite to the manifes- 
tation of great mental power ; the brain must possess 
also a favorable temperament, a healthy constitution, 
and that degree of activity which is the usual accom- 
paniment of health. Now, the brain, like other parts 
of the body, may be affected with certain diseases 
which do not diminish or increase its magnitude, and 
yet impair its functions ; and, in such cases, great size 
may be present, and very imperfect manifestations ap- 
pear ; or it may be attacked with other diseases, such 
as inflammation, or any of those particular affections 
whose nature is unknown, but to which the name of 
Mania is given in nosology, and which greatly exalt 
its action ; and then very forcible manifestations may 
proceed from a brain comparatively small ; but it 
is no less true, that when a larger brain is excited to 
the same degree by the same causes, the manifestations 
become increased in energy in proportion to the in- 
crease of size. These cases, therefore, form no valid 
objection to Phrenology. The Phrenologist ascertains, 
by previous inquiry, that the brain is in a state of health. 
If it is not, he makes the necessary limitations in draw- 
ing his conclusions.* 

* See this subject discussed at greater length in Phrenological 
Journal, No. II. p. 300. 



AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. 157 

Nature admits of no exceptions, and a single instance 
of decidedly vigorous manifestations, with a small or- 
gan, disease being absent, would overturn all previous 
observations in favor of that organ; but men are liable 
to err ; and although an individual Phrenologist may- 
have called an organ small, the manifestations of which 
are powerful, or vice versa, this is not to be precipitate- 
ly charged against nature as an exception. Chemists 
occasionally fail in experiments, mathematicians err in 
demonstration, arithmeticians are wrong in calcula- 
tions ; and, in like manner, Phrenologists may commit 
mistakes in observing cerebral development. The test 
in such cases is, to compare the organ in regard to 
which an apparent discrepancy has occurred, with the 
same organ in the head of a person whose general 
temperament, size of brain and cultivation are similar, 
but whose powers of manifestation, in respect of this 
particular faculty, are known to be diametrically op- 
posite. Jf the organs are not perceived by an ordina- 
ry eye to differ, then the exception is proved. I have 
seen conviction carried home to an opponent, by such 
an appeal to nature, when he imagined himself sure of 
a triumph on the score of an error committed by an 
observer. 

If, in each of two individuals, the organs of propen- 
sity, sentiment, and intellect, are equally balanced, the 
general conduct of one may be vicious, and that of 
another moral and religious. But the question here 
is not one of power, for as much energy may be dis- 
played in vice as in virtue ; but it is one of direction 
merely, in cases where an equal development of all 
the organs exists, direction depends on external influ- 
14 



168 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

ences, and then no Phrenologist, by merely observing 
the size of the organs, pretends to tell to what objects 
the faculties have been directed. 

The second cause of activity is particular combi- 
nations of organs. The largest organ in each head 
have the greatest, and the smallest the least, tendency 
to natural activity. 

This law of our constitution is of great practical im- 
portance. If an individual have an active tempera- 
ment and large organs, they generate strong desires, 
sentiments, or intellectual conceptions, involuntarily. 
]f provided with suitable objects, on which they may 
exert their energies, they conduce to the highest en- 
joyment, and lay the foundation of the greatest useful- 
ness. If not so provided, they give rise to the most 
painful emotions. If Love of Approbation be large, it 
excites an ardent desire of applause ; if no merit be 
possessed to command esteem, it cannot obtain gratifi- 
cation, and painful dissatisfaction is the consequence. 
Self-Esteem very large, prompts to the assumption of 
airs of consequence, and to exaggerated opinions of 
self, and, when uncontrolled, exposes the possessor to 
countless mortifications. Combativeness and De- 
structiveness very large, and undirected, prompt the 
mind to watch for occasions of offence, and embitter 
every hour by furious ebullitions. A long train of dis- 
eases, in common language styled Nervous affections, 
result from the mental faculties and organs being un- 
provided with proper objects on which their activity 
may be exerted. Unless the brain be very small and 
constitutionally inactive, occupation must be obtained, 
otherwise the organs unexercised generate the most 



AND PRACTICAL, APPLICATIONS. 159 

painful sensations. Education and literature, as means 
of directing and occupying the faculties, are of vast 
importance : when these are not possessed, animal 
pleasures, or the follies of fashionable life, are resorted 
to for the sake of excitement. 

A certain combination in size, namely, Combative- 
ness, Destructiveness, Hope, Firmness, Acquisitive- 
ness, and Love of Approbation, all large, is common- 
ly attended with activity ; and another combination, 
namely, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Firmness, 
and Acquisitiveness, small or moderate, with Hope, 
Veneration, and Benevolence, large, is frequently ac- 
companied with less activity in the mental character. 

The third cause of activity is exercise. Suppose 
that two individuals possess organs and temperaments 
exactly similar, but that one is highly educated, and 
the other left entirely to the impulses of nature; the 
former will manifest his faculties w 7 ith higher power 
than the latter; and hence it is argued, that size is not 
in all cases a measure of energy. 

Here, however, the requisite of cceteris paribus does 
not hold. An important condition is altered, and the 
Phrenologist uniformly allows for the effects of educa- 
tion, before drawing positive conclusions.* The ob- 
jector may perhaps push his argument farther, and 
maintain, that if exercise thus increases power, it is 
impossible to draw the line of distinction between en- 
ergy derived from this cause and that which proceeds 
from size in the organs, and hence that the real effects 
of size can never be determined. In reply, it may be 

* rhren. Trans, p. 308, 



160 SIZE AND ACTIVITY, 

observed, that education may cause the faculties to 
manifest themselves with the highest degree of ener- 
gy which the size of the organs will permit, but that 
size fixes a limit which education cannot surpass. 
Dennis, we may presume, received some improve- 
ment from education, but it did not render him equal 
to Pope, much less to Shakspeare or Milton : 
therefore, if we lake two individuals whose brains are 
equal in temperament and health, but whose organs 
differ in size, and educate them alike, the advantages 
in power and attainment will be greatest in the direct 
ratio of the size, in favor of the largest brain. Thus 
the objection ends in this, — -that if w 7 e compare brains 
in opposite conditions, we may be led into error — 
which is granted ; but this is not in opposition to the 
doctrine that, eceteris paribus, size determines power* 
Finally — extreme deficiency in size produces incapa- 
city for education, as in idiots \ while extreme devel- 
opment, if healthy, combined with an active tempera- 
ment, as in Shakspeare, Burns, Mozart, anticipate 
its effects, in so far that the individuals educate them- 
selves. 

In saying, then, that, cmteris paribus, size is a meas- 
ure of power, Phrenologists demand no concessions 
which are not made to physiologists in general, among 
whom, in this instance, they rank themselves. 

The doctrine that size is a measure of power, is not 
to be held as implying that power as the only, or even 
the most valuable quality, which a mind in all circum- 
tances can possess. To drag artillery over a mountain, 
or a ponderous car through the streets of London, we 
would prefer an elephant, or a horse of great size and 



AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. 161 

muscular power; while, for graceful motion, agility, 
and nimbleness, we would select an Arabian palfrey. 
In like manner, to lead men in gigantic and difficult 
enterprizes, — to command by native greatness in per- 
ilous times, when law is trampled under foot, — to call 
forth the energies of a people, and direct them against 
a tyrant at home, or an alliance of tyrants abroad, — 
to stamp the impress of a single mind upon a nation ; — 
to infuse strength into thoughts, and depth into feelings, 
which shall command the homage of enlightened men 
in every age ; — in short, to be a Bruce, Bonaparte, 
Luther, Knox, Demosthenes, Shakspeare, or 
Milton, a large brain is indispensably requisite ; but 
to display skTll, enterprize, and fidelity, in the various 
professions of civil life ; — ■ to cultivate, with success, 
the less arduous branches of philosophy ; — to excel 
in acuteness, taste, and felicity of expression ; — to 
acquire extensive erudition and refined manners, a 
brain of a moderate size is perhaps more suitable than 
one that is very large; for wherever the energy is in- 
tense, it is rare that delicacy, refinement, and taste, are 
present in an equal degree. Individuals possessing 
moderate sized brains easily find their proper sphere, 
and enjoy scope for all their energy. In ordinary cir- 
cumstances, they distinguish themselves ; but sink 
when difficulties accumulate around them. Persons 
with large brains, on the other hand, do not readily at- 
tain their appropriate place ; common occurrences do 
not rouse or call them forth; and, while unknown, 
they are not trusted with great undertakings. Often, 
therefore, such men pine and die in obscurity. When, 
however, they attain their proper element, they feel 
14* 



162 COMBINATIONS IN SIZE. 

conscious greatness, and glory in the expansion of 
their powers. Their mental energies rise in propor- 
tion to the obstacles to be surmounted, and bteze forth 
in all the magnificence of genius, when feebler minds 
would expire in despair. 

Men in genera] willingly obey a person in authority, 
whose head is large and favorably proportioned : be- 
cause they feel natural greatness coinciding with ad- 
ventitious power. If, on the other hand, the head is 
small, or large only in the organs of the propensities, 
the individual is felt to be inferior in spite of his arti- 
ficial elevation, and is opposed, despised, or hated. 

Bonaparte, Captain Parry, and many others, 
present a favorable specimen of the former ; while, 
among living men in authority, numerous examples of 
the latter are also to be met with. 

Great general size and great activity combined, con- 
stitute the natural elements of the highest genius. 

A few T practical observations shall now be given, 
in farther illustration of the principles here expounded. 



COMBINATIONS IN SIZE, OR EFFECTS OF THE ORGANS 
WHEN COMBINED IN DIFFERENT RELATIVE PRO- 
PORTIONS. 

The primitive functions of each organ were dis- 
covered, by observing cases in which it decidedly pre- 
dominated over, or fell short of, other organs, in point 
of size, and by similar observations, each must still be 
verified. After the discovery is established, its prac- 



COMBINATIONS IN SIZE. 163 

tical application deserves attention. Every individual 
possesses all ihe organs, but they are combined in dif- 
ferent degrees of relative size in different persons ; 
and the manifestations of each are modified, in some 
degree, by the influence of those with which it is com- 
bined. 

Three rules may be laid down for estimating the ef- 
fects of differences in relative size, occurring in the 
organs of the same brain. 

Rule first. — Every faculty desires gratification 
with a degree of energy proportioned to the size of its 
organ ; * and those faculties will be habitually in- 
dulged, the organs of which are largest in the indi- 
vidual. 

Examples. — If all the animal organs are large, and 
all the organs of the moral sentiments and intellect 
small, the individual will be naturally prone to animal 
indulgence in the highest degree, and disposed to seek 
gratification in the directest ■ way, and in the lowest 
pursuits. The Charibs, Mary Macinnes, and Bel- 
lingham, are illustrations of this combination, and 
their manifestations corresponded. 

If, on the other hand, the organs of the moral sen- 
timents and intellect greatly predominate, the individ- 
ual will be naturally prone to moral and intellectual 
pursuits; such persons are ' a law unto themselves.' 
The casts of Dr. Hette, and the Reverend Mr. M., 
are examples of this combination, and they may be 
contrasted with the casts last mentioned. 

* The condition cceteris paribus, is always understood, and 
therefore need not be repeated in treating of the effects of size. 



164 COMBINATIONS IN SIZE. 

Rule second. — As there are three kinds of facul- 
ties, Animal, Moral, and Intellectual, which are not 
homogeneous in their nature, it may happen that sev- 
eral large animal organs are combined in the same in- 
dividual with several moral and intellectual organs 
highly developed. The rule then will be, that the 
k)wef propensities will take their direction from the 
higher powers ; and such a course of action will be 
habitually followed, as will be calculated to gratify the 
whole faculties whose organs are large. 

Examples. — -If the organs of Acquisitiveness and 
Conscientiousness be both large, stealing might gratify 
Acquisitiveness, but it would offend Conscientiousness. 
According to the rule now stated, the individual would 
endeavor to gratify both, by acquiring property by 
lawful industry. If both Combativeness and De- 
structiveness are large, and Benevolence and Conscien- 
tiousness are as fully developed, wanton outrage and 
indiscriminate attack might gratify the first two facul- 
ties, but they would outrage the last two ; and hence 
the individual would seek* for situations calculated to 
gratify all four, and these may be found in the ranks 
of an army embodied for the defence of his country, 
or in moral and intellectual warfare waged against the 
patrons of corruption and abuse in Church and State. 
Luther, Knox, and many other benefactors of man- 
kind, were probably actuated by such a combination 
of faculties. 

If, in an individual, the Cerebellum is very large, 
and Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, and Conscien- 
tiousness deficient, he will be prone to the directest 
gratifications of the animal appetite; if the latter or- 



COMBINATIONS IN SIZE. 165 

gans are large, he will perceive that wedlock affords 
the only means of pleasing the whole group of facul- 
ties. 

If Benevolence, Self-Esteem, and Acquisitiveness 
are all large, giving charily may gratify the first; but 
unless the individual be very rich, the act of parting 
with property may be disagreeable to the two last 
faculties : he would therefore prefer to gratify Benev- 
olence by doing acts of personal kindness ; he would 
sacrifice time, trouble, influence, and advice, to the 
welfare of others, but not properly. If Benevolence 
were small, with the same combination, he would not 
give either money or services. 

If Love of Approbation large, is combined with 
large Ideality and moderate reflecting faculties, the 
individual will be ambitious to excel in the splendor of 
his equipage, style of living, dress, and rank. If, to 
the same combination, be added a powerful intellect, 
and large Conscientiousness, moral and intellectual 
excellence will be preferred as the means of obtaining 
the respect of the world. 

If Self-Esteem large, is combined with deficient 
Benevolence, Love of Approbation and Conscientious- 
ness, the individual will be prone to gratify his selfish 
feelings, with little regard to the good opinion, or the 
just claims of society. If Self-Esteem large, is com- 
bined wiih Large Love of Aprobation and Conscien- 
tiousness, the former will produce only that degree of 
self-respect which is essential to dignity of character, 
and that degree of independence of sentiment, with- 
out which even virtue cannot be maintained. 

If large Cautiousness is combined with deficient 



16G COMBINATIONS IN SIZE. 

Combativeness, the individual will be extremely timid. 
If Combativeness be large, and Cautiousness small, 
reckless intrepidity will be the result. If Combative- 
ness be equally lar^e with Cautiousness, the individu- 
al will display courage regulated by prudence. If 
Cautiousness, Conscientiousness, Self-Esteem, Seere- 
tiveness, and Love of Approbation, are all large, and 
Combativeness moderate, bashfulness or mauvaise honte 
will be the consequence. This feeling is the result of 
the fear of not acquitting one's-self to advantage, and 
thereby compromising one's personal dignity. 

If Veneration and Hope are large, and Conscien- 
tiousness and Benevolence small, the individual will be 
naturally fond of the act of religious worship, but 
averse to the practice of charity and justice. If the 
proportions are reversed, the result will be a natural 
disposition to charity and justice, with no great tenden- 
cy to the exercise of devotion. If all the four organs 
are large, the individual will be naturally inclined to 
render homage to God, and discharge his duties to 
men. If Veneration large, is combined with large Ac- 
quisitiveness and Love of Approbation, the former sen- 
timent may be directed to superiors in rank and pow- 
er, as the means of gratifying the desires for wealth 
and influence depending on the latter faculties. If 
Veneration small, be combined with Self-Esteem and 
Firmness large, the individual will not naturally look 
up to superiors in rank. 

The inteilectual faculties will naturally tend to such 
employments as are calculated to gratify the predomi- 
nant propensities and sentiments. If the organs which 
constitute a genius for painting are combined with 






COMBINATIONS IN SIZE. 167 

large Acquisitiveness, the individual would paint to be- 
come rich ; if combined with Acquisitiveness small, and 
Love of Approbation large, he would probably labor 
for fame, and starve while attaining it. 

Talents for different intellectual pursuits depend 
upon the combinations of the knowing and reflecting 
organs in certain proportions. Form, Size, Coloring, 
Individuality, Ideality, Imitation, and Secretiveness, 
large, with Locality small, will constitute a portrait, but 
iiot a landscape, painter. Diminish Form and Im- 
itation, and increase Locality, and the result will be a 
talent for landscape, but not for portrait painting. If 
to Individuality, Comparison, and Causality, all large, 
an equally well developed organ of Language is add- 
ed, the result will be a talent for authorship or public 
debate ; if the Language be small, the other faculties 
will be more prone to seek gratification in the business 
of life, or in abstract philosophy. 

The principle of this rule solves cases which often 
appear inexplicable to superficial observers. In Qua- 
ker Geddes, as drawn by the Author of Waverley in 
Redgauntlet (and many such individuals exist in na- 
ture,) Combativeness and Destructiveness are kept in 
check by the moral sentiments and reflection, so as in 
no instance to be permitted to repel violence by vio- 
lence. The question is frequently asked, What, in 
such cases, becomes of the organs ? The answer is, 
that they are present, and perform their usual functions. 
The individual in question is represented as full of 
moral intrepidity and energy of character; and this is 
the result of Combativeness and Destructiveness, di- 
rected by the superior faculties. If these organs were 
small, those of the higher powers being large, the con- 



168 COMBINATIONS IN SIZE. 

sequence would be a deficiency in active and energet- 
ic qualities of mind. In no instance, therefore, is it 
a matter of indifference to the dispositions and charac- 
ter of the individual, whether any particular organ be 
large or small. To estimate the effect produced on 
the character by a large organ, the manifestations of 
which appear to be suppressed, we should consider 
what the result would be if that organ were small, 
while all the others retained their original proportions. 

In like manner, an organ greatly deficient in size 
cannot be compensated for by other organs, however 
large. If Conscientiousness be deficient, — although 
Benevolence and Veneration be large, there may be 
kindness without justice, and piety without integrity. 
Some men are too generous to be just, and others 
make religion a cloak for dishonesty. These charac- 
ters result from this combination. 

Rule third. — Where all the organs appear in 
nearly equal proportions to each other, the individual, 
if left to himself, will exhibit opposite phases of char- 
acter, according as the animal propensities or moral 
sentiments predominate for the time. He will pass his 
life in alternate sinning and repenting. If external in- 
fluence is brought to operate upon him, his conduct 
will be greatly modified by it; if placed, for instance, 
under severe discipline, and moral restraint, these will 
cast the balance, for the time, in favor of the higher 
sentiments; if exposed to the solicitation of profligate 
associates, the animal propensities will probably obtain 
triumphant sway. Maxwell, who was executed for 
housebreaking and theft, is an example of this combi- 
nation. In him the three orders of organs are amply 
developed; — while subjected to the discipline of the 



COMB TI' IN AGT* TY. 169 

army, he preserved a fair reputation ; but when he fell 
into the company of thieves, he adopted their prac- 
tices, and was hanged. 

The principles now laid down remove an objection 
that has frequently been stated, viz. that, as different 
combinations modify the manner in which the faculties 
are mamfested, and as the functions of the parts at the 
base of the brain are still undiscovered, no certainty 
can be obtained regarding the functions even of the 
higher parts; because, say the objectors, all the man- 
ifestations actually perceived, may be the result of 
the joint action of the known and unknown parts, and 
hence it is impossible to determine tbe specific functions 
of each. The answer to this objection is, that the 
function of each organ remains invariable, whatever 
direction the manifestations may take, in consequence 
of its acting in combination with other organs. Hence, 
if we suppose the unknown parts at the base of the 
brain to be the organs of Hunger and Thirst, as seve- 
ral facts indicate, then Tune combined with these parts 
large, would produce Bacchanalian son^s ; if combin- 
ed with these small, and Veneration large, hymns 
would be the form of its manifestation ; but, in either 
case, Tune would perform only its primitive function 
of producing melody. 



COMBINATIONS IN ACTIVITY. 

Where several organs are large in the same indi- 
vidual, they have a natural tendency to combine in 
15 



170 COMBINATIONS IN ACTIVITY. 

activity, and to prompt him to a line of conduct calcu- 
lated to gratify them all. Where, however, all or the 
greater part of the organs are possessed in nearly equal 
proportions, important practical effects may be produc- 
ed, by establishing Combinations in activity among 
particular organs, or groups of organs. For example, 
if Individuality, Eventuality, Ideality, Causality, Com- 
parison and Language be all large, they will naturally 
tend to act together^ and the result of their combined ac- 
tivity will be a natural talent for public speaking, or litera- 
ry composition. If Language be small, it will be ex- 
tremely difficult to establish such a combination in ac- 
tivity, and these natural talents will be deficient : but 
if we take two individuals, in both of whom this group 
of organs is of an average size, and if we train one of 
them to a mechanical employment, and the other to 
the bar ; in the latter, the reflecting organs and that 
of Language will be trained to act together, and the 
result will be an acquired facility in writing and de- 
bate ; whereas, in the former, in consequence of the 
organ of Language never being accustomed to act in 
combination w 7 ilh those of intellect, this facility would 
be wanting. On the same principle, if a person, hav- 
ing an excellent endowment of the organs of propen- 
sity, sentiment, and intellect, were introduced for the 
first time into higher society than that in which he had 
been accustomed to move, it might happen that he 
would lose for a moment the command of his faculties, 
and exhibit an unhappy specimen of awkwardness and 
embarrassment. This would arise from irregular and 
inharmonious action in the different faculties and or- 
gans : Veneration, powerfully excited, would prompt 



COMBINATIONS IN ACTIVITY. 171 

him to manifest profound respect-; Love of Approba- 
tion would inspire him with a strong desire to exhibit 
a pleasing and becoming appearance ; Cautiousness 
would produce alarm, lest he should fail in any essen- 
tial of good breeding ; Self-Esteem would feel com- 
promised by the embarrassment stealing on the mind ; 
and the intellect, distracted by these conflicting emo- 
tions, would be unable to regulate the conduct accord- 
ing to the rules of propriety. When familiarized 
with the situation, the sentiments would subside into 
a state of more harmonious action : the intellect would 
assume the supremacy ; and then the individual might 
become the idol and ornament of the circle in which 
he had made so awkward a debut. 

It is in virtue of this principle that education produces 
its most important effects. If, for instance, we take 
two individuals, in each of whom all the organs are 
developed in an average degree ; and if the one of 
them has been educated among persons of sordid and 
mercenary dispositions, Acquisitiveness and Self-Es- 
teem being cultivated in him into a high degree of ac- 
tivity, self-interest and personal aggrandizement would 
be viewed as the great objects of life. If the Love of 
Approbation were trained into combined activity with 
these faculties, it would desire distinction in wealth or 
power; if Veneration were trained to act in concert 
with them, it would take the direction of admiring the 
rich and great ; and, Conscientiousness not being pre- 
dominantly vigorous, would only intimate that such 
pursuits were unworthy, without possessing the power 
by itself, of overcoming or controlling the whole com- 
bination against it. If another individual, possessing 



172 COMBINATIONS IN ACTIVITY. 

the same development, were trained amidst moral and 
religious society, in whose habitual conduct the prac- 
tice of benevolence and justice towards men, and ven- 
eration towards God, was the leading object, the Love 
of Approbation, acting with this combination, would 
desire esteem for honorable and virtuous actions ; and 
Acquisitiveness would be viewed as the means of pro- 
curing gratification to these higher powers, but not as 
itself an object of paramount importance. The prac- 
tical conduct of the two individuals might be very 
different in consequence of this difference of training. 

The principle now under discussion is not inconsist- 
ent with the influence of size ; because it is only in 
individuals in whom the organs are nearly on an equal- 
ity in point of size, that so great effects can be pro- 
duced by combinations in activity. In such cases, the 
Phrenologist, in estimating the effects of size, always 
inquires into the education bestowed. 

The doctrine of combinations in activity explains 
several other mental phenomena of an interesting na- 
ture. In viewing the heads of the higher and lower 
classes of society, we do not perceive the animal or- 
gans preponderating in point of size in the latter, and 
the moral sentiments in the former, in any very palpa- 
ble degree. The high polish, therefore, which charac- 
terizes the upper ranks, is the result of sustained har- 
mony in the action of the different faculties, and es- 
pecially in those of the moral sentiments, induced by 
long cultivation ; while the rudeness observable in 
some of the lower orders, result from a predominating 
combination in activity among the lower propensities. 
The awkwardness that frequently characterizes them, 



COMBINATIONS IN ACTIVITY. 173 

arises from the propensities, sentiments, and intellect, 
not being habituated to act together. If, however, an 
individual is very deficient in the higher organs, he will, 
although born and educated in the best society, remain 
vulgar in consequence of this defect, in spite of every 
effort to communicate refinement by training ; while on 
the other hand, if a very favorable development of 
the organs of the higher sentiments and intellect is pos- 
sessed, the individual, in whatever rank he moves, 
will have the stamp of Nature's nobility. 

Several moral phenomena also, which were com- 
plete enigmas to the older metaphysicians, are ex- 
plained by this principle. Dr. Adam Smith, in his 
Theory, chapter II., ' On the influence of fortune up- 
on the sentiments of mankind, with regard to the mer- 
it and demerit of actions,' states the following case : 
A person throws a large stone over a wall into the 
public street, without giving warning to those who are 
passing, and without regarding where it may fall ; if it 
light upon a person's head, and knock out his brains, 
we would punish the offender pretty severely ; but if 
it fall upon the ground, and hurt nobody, we would be 
offended with the same measure of punishment, which, 
in the former event, we would reckon just ; and yet the 
demerit in both cases is the same. Dr. Smith gives 
no theory to account for these differences of moral de- 
termination. Phrenology explains them. If the 
stone falls upon an unhappy passenger, Benevolence 
in the spectator is outraged; — if the sufferer had a 
wife and family, Philoprogenitiveness and Adhesive- 
ness are offended. Self-Esteem and Cautiousness also 
are excited, by the idea that we might have shared the 
15* 



174 COMBINATIONS IN ACTIVITY. 

same fate ; all these rouse Destructiveness, and the 
whole together loudly demand a smart infliction on the 
transgressor to appease them. In the other event, 
when the stone falls to the ground, and hurts nobody, 
the only faculties excited are Intellect, Conscientious- 
ness, and probably Cautiousness; and these calmly 
look at the motive of the offender, which probably was 
mere thoughtless levity, and enact a slight punishment 
against him. The proper sentence, in such a case, is 
that which would be pronounced by Intellect, and the 
moral sentiments acting in combination, uninfluenced 
by the lower propensities. 

In like manner, when a person becomes judge in 
his own cause ; Self-Esteem, Acquisitiveness, and 
probably Cornbativeness and Destructiveness, roused 
by the conduct of the opposite party, mingle their in- 
fluence with that of Conscientiousness, and the result 
is a determination frequently the very opposite of jus- 
tice. When a neutral person is appointed as a judge, 
Conscientiousness and Intellect alone are called in- 
to activity, and absolute justice is the result of a 
powerful sentiment of Conscientiousness, thoroughly 
enlightened by an acute and well-informed under- 
standing. In party politics, Adhesiveness, Love of 
Approbation, and Benevolence, not to mention Corn- 
bativeness and Destructiveness, are extremely apt to 
enter into vivid activity, in surveying the conduct of 
an individual who has distinguished himself by zealous 
efforts upon our own side ; and our judgment of his 
conduct will, in consequence, be the determination of 
Intellect and Conscientiousness, disturbed and led 
astray by these inferior feelings. 



(175) 



ON MATERIALISM. 

The objection, that Phrenology leads to material- 
ism, has been frequently urged against the science; 
but it appears singularly nnphilosophical, even upon 
the most superficial consideration. There are two 
questions, very different in themselves, which are often 
confounded. The one is, On what is the mind de- 
pendent for existence ? The other, On what is it de- 
pendent for its power of manifesting itself in this life 6 } 
Phrenologists declare themselves unable to decide up- 
on the former point ; but they maintain, that facts de- 
monstrate the power of manifestation to depend on 
the condition of the organization. When, therefore, 
a phrenologist says that ' the mental qualities and ca- 
pacities are dependent upon the bodily constitution,' 
the sentence fails to be completed, ' not for existence, 
but for the power of acting in this material world.' — 
See Phren. Jour. vol. ii. p. 148. Phrenology, there- 
fore, viewed as the assertion of certain physical facts, 
cannot, if unfounded, lead logically to any result, ex- 
cept the disgrace and mortification of its supporters. 
On such a supposition, it cannot overturn religion, or 
any other truth ; because, by the constitution of the 
human intellect, error constantly tends to resolve it- 
self into nothing, and to sink into oblivion ; while 
truth, having a real existence, remains permanent and 
impregnable. In this view, then, the objection, that 
Phrenology leads to materialism, is absurd. If, on the 



176 MATERIALISM. 

other hand, the science is held to be a true interpre- 
tation of nature, and if it is urged, that, nevertheless, it 
leads fairly and logically to materialism, then the folly 
of the objection is equally glaring ; for it resolves it- 
self into this, — that materialism is the constitution of 
nature, and that Phrenology is dangerous, because it 
makes this constitution known. 

The charge assumes a still more awkward appear- 
ance in one shape, in which it is frequently brought 
forward. The objector admits that the mind uses the 
body as an instrument of communication with exter- 
nal nature, and maintains, that this fact does not ne- 
cessarily lead to materialism. In this I agree with 
him ; but I cannot perceive how it should lead near- 
er to this result, to hold that each faculty manifests it- 
self by a peculiar organ. In short, in whatever point 
of view the system is regarded, whether as true or 
false, the objection of materialism is futile and unphi- 
losophical ; and one must regret that it should have 
been brought forward in the name of Religion, be- 
cause every imbecile and unfounded attack against 
Philosophy, made in this sacred name, tends to di- 
minish the respect with which it ought always to be 
invested. 

The question of materialism itself, however, as a 
point of abstract discussion, has of late excited con- 
siderable attention ; and I shall offer a few remarks 
upon its general merits. In entering on the subject, it 
is proper to take a view of the nature and extent of 
the point in dispute, and of the real effect of our de- 
cision upon it. The question then is, Whether the 
xubstance of which the thinking principle is composed 



MATERIALISM. 177 

be matter or spirit? And the effect of our decision, 
let it be observed, is not to alter the nature of that 
substance, whatever it is, but merely to adopt an opin- 
ion consonant with, or adverse to, a fact in nature over 
which we have no control. Mind, with all its facul- 
ties and functions, has existed since the creation, and 
will exist until the human race becomes extinct, and 
no opinion of man concerning the cause of its phe- 
nomena, can have the least influence over that cause 
itself. The mind is invested, by nature, with all its 
properties ; and these it will possess, and manifest and 
maintain, let men think, and speak, and write, what 
they will, concerning its substance. If the Author of 
Nature has invested the mind with the quality of end- 
less existence, it will, to a certainty, flourish in immor- 
tal youth, in spite of every appearance of premature 
decay. If, on the other hand, he has limited its exist- 
ence to this passing scene, and decreed that it shall 
perish forever when the animating principle passes 
from the body, then all our conjectures, arguments, 
discussions, and assertions, respecting its immortality, 
will not add one day to its existence. The opinions 
of man, therefore, concerning the substance of the 
mind, can have no influence whatever in changing or 
modifying that substance itself; and if so, as little can 
these opinions undermine the constitution of the mind, 
or its relations to time and eternity, on which, as 
their foundations, morality and religion must, and do 
rest as on an immutable basis. According to Phrenol- 
ogy, morality and natural religion originate in, and em- 
anate from, the primitive constitution of the mental 
powers themselves. Innumerable observations have 



178 MATERIALISM. 

proved, that faculties and organs of Benevolence, 
Hope, Veneration, Justice, and Reflection exist. Now, 
our believing that the mind will die with the body will 
not pluck these sentiments and powers from the soul ; 
nor will our believing the mind to be immortal, im- 
plant a single one more of them in our constitution. 
They would all remain the same in function and con- 
stitution, and render virtue amiable, and vice odious, 
although we should believe the mind to be made of 
dust, just as they would do were we to believe the 
mind to be a more immediate emanation from the 
Deity himself. 

In short, this question of materialism is one of the 
most vain, trivial, and uninteresting that evei engaged 
the human intellect ; and nothing can be more unphi- 
losopbical, and more truly detrimental to the interests 
of morality and religion, than the unfounded clamor, 
or cant shall I call it, which has been poured forth 
from the periodical journals about the dangers attend- 
ing it. A manly intellect, instead of bowing before 
prejudice, would dissipate it, by showing that the 
question is altogether an illusion, and that, adopt what 
opinion we will, concerning the substance of the mind, 
every attribute belonging to it must remain unaltered 
and un impeached. 

But, not to stop in our investigation till we have 
reached the goal, we may inquire, whether it be pos- 
sible to discover the substance of which the mind is 
composed, and to determine whether it be material or 
immaterial? The first step in this investigation is to 
ascertain what means we possess of arriving at a 
knowledge of the essence of the mind, All pur 



MATERIALISM. 179 

knowledge must be derived either from consciousness 
or observation. Now, by reflecting on what we fee], 
we discover nothing concerning the nature or essence 
of the thinking being. We do not feel a spiritual sub- 
stance stirring within us, and elaborating sentiment and 
thought; and neither do we feel a material substance 
producing these effects. We are conscious of feel- 
ings and emotions, of friendships and attachments, of 
high conceptions and glorious thoughts ; but whether 
these originate from matter or spirit ; whether the 
first embryo substance of reflection dwelt lowly in the 
dust, or soared a pure ethereal essence am d the re- 
gions of boundless space, before it was constituted a 
part of us; whether God, in creating man, was pleas- 
ed to invest his material organs with the property of 
thought, or to infuse into him a portion of immaterial 
fire; — on all these points consciousness gives us no 
information. A great deal of popular delusion, in- 
deed, has been kept alive on this point, by the fact be- 
ing overlooked, that we are not conscious of the opera- 
tions of the brain. Men in general, because they 
are sensible only of thought and feeling, and not of 
the movements of any material organ performing these 
acts of the mind, imagine that it is necessarily an im- 
material substance which is thinking and feeling within 
them ; but they are equally unconscious of the con- 
traction and relaxation of the muscles, and they might 
as well imagine that the legs and arms are moved, not 
by material organs, but by the direct impulse of spirit, 
as entertain the supposition in question. In short, the 
truly philosophical conclusion is, that, hy means of 



180 MATERIALISM. 

consciousness, we are unable to discover of what sub- 
stance the thinking principle is composed. 

Does observation, then, thrown stronger and steadier 
light upon this long agitated question ? The mental or- 
gans, while in health, and in the natural state in which 
their functions are most perfectly performed, are com- 
pletely hid from inspection. No eye can penetrate 
the integuments of the head, and the tables of the 
skull, and the dura mater, and the pia mater, to obtain 
a view of the operations performed in the brain, while 
the thoughts run high, and the sentiments swell with 
emotion ; and when external injury or disease removes 
these coverings, the mind does not then disport in all 
the vigor of its healthy action. Besides, even when 
all these external obstacles to inspection are removed, 
still it is only the surface of the convolutions which is 
perceived ; and the soul may be enthroned in the long 
fibres which extend from the surface to the medulla 
oblongata, and thought may be elaborated there, and 
still evade detection ; or thought, may be a process al- 
together beyond the cognizance of any of our senses. 
It may be said, however, that death wilL solve the 
question, and allow the whole secrets of the soul to be 
disclosed ; but, alas ! when the pulse has ceased to 
beat and the lungs to play, the brain presents nothing 
to our contemplation, but an inert mass, of a soft and 
fibrous texture, in which no thought can be discerned, 
no sentiment perceived, and no spirit or immaterial 
substance can be traced ; so that from inspecting it, 
even imagination receives no food for conjecture, as to 
the presence or absence of an immaterial guest, while 
life and health animated its folds. 



MATERIALISM. 181 

Observation, therefore, reveals as little in regard to 
the substance of the mind as does reflection on con- 
sciousness ; and as no other modes of arriving at certain 
knowledge are open to man, the solution of the ques- 
tion appears to be placed completely beyond his reach. 
In short, to use an observation of Dr. Spurzheim, 
Nature has given man faculties fitted to observe phe- 
nomena as they at present exist, and the relations sub- 
sisting between them ; but has denied to him the pow- 
ers fitted to discover, as a matter of direct percep- 
tion, either the beginning or the end, or the essence of 
anything under the sun ; and we may amuse onr imagi- 
nations with conjectures, but will never arrive at truth, 
when we stray into these interdicted regions. 

The solution of the question, therefore, is not only 
unimportant, but it is impossible ; and this leads me 
to observe, that no idea can be more erroneous than 
that which supposes the dignity and future destiny of 
man as an immortal being, to depend, of necessity, on 
the substance of which he is made. 

Let us allow to the materialists, for the sake of argu- 
ment, that the brain is the mind, and that medullary 
matter thinks, — ■ what then ? If in fact it does so, 
it must be the best possible substance for thinking, 
just because the Creator selected it for the purpose, 
and endowed it w 7 ith this property. In this argu- 
ment the religious constantly forget that the same om- 
nipotent hand made the brain that created the mind 
and the universe itself, and that, in the dedication of 
every cerebral convolution to its objects, be they think- 
ing or any other process, the Divine Wisdom is as cer- 
tainly exercised, as in impressing motion on the planets, 
16 



182 MATERIALISM. 

or infusing light and heat into the sun. If, therefore, 
de facto, God has made the brain to think, we may 
rest assured that it is exquisitely and perfectly adapted 
for this purpose, and that His objects in creating man 
will not be defeated on account of His having chosen 
& wrong substance out of which to constitute the think- 
ing principle. But what are His objects in creating 
man ? This brings us to the jet of the question at 
once. Some authors make materialism the foundation 
of atheism, and wish us to believe that the best evi- 
dence of the Divine intention in creating the human 
soul, is to be found in discovering the substance of 
which it is made ; and they insinuate, that if it is con- 
stituted by a very refined and dignified material, it is 
intended for magnificent destinies, while ; if it is com- 
posed of a rude and vulgar stuff, it must be intended 
to live only in this lower world. Here, however, sense 
and logic equally fail them ; for no principle in Phi- 
losophy is more certain than that, from a knowledge of 
the mere substance of anything, we cannot infer for what 
ends it is fitted. Exhibit to a human being every va- 
riety of imaginable essence, and if you allow him to 
know no more of its properties than he can discover 
from examining its ultimate elements, he will be utter- 
ly incapable of telling whether it is calculated to en- 
dure for a day, or to last to eternity. The materialist, 
therefore, is not entitled, even from the supposed ad- 
mission that medullary matter thinks, to conclude that 
the human being cannot be immortal and responsible. 
The true way of discovering for what end man has 
been created, is to look to the qualities with which he 
has been endowed, trusting that the substance of which 



MATERIALISM. 183 

he is composed is perfectly suited to the objects of his 
creation. Now, when we inquire into the qualities, 
we find the thinking principle in him to differ, not 
only in degree, but in kind, from that of the lower an- 
imals. The latter have no faculty of Justice, to indi- 
cate to them that the unrestrained manifestation of De- 
structiveness or Acquisitiveness is wrong ; they have 
no sentiment of Veneration, to prompt them to seek a 
God whom they may adore ; they have no faculty of 
Hope, pointing out futurity as an object of ceaseless 
anxiety and contemplation, and leading them to desire 
a life beyond the grave ; and, indeed, the convolutions 
of the brain, which in man constitute the organs of 
these sentiments, do not exist in the lower animals. 
Those organs also, which in man serve to manifest the 
faculties of Reflection, are, in the lower animals, em- 
inently deficient, and their understanding, in exact 
correspondence with this fact, is so limited as to be 
satisfied with little knowledge, and to be insensible to 
the comprehensive design and glories of creation. 
Man, then, being endowed with qualities which are de- 
nied to the lower creatures, we are entitled, by a legiti- 
mate exercise of reflection, the subject being beyond 
the region of the external senses, to conclude, on prin- 
ciples truly philosophic, that he is designed for an- 
other and a higher destiny than is to be allotted to 
them, whatever be the essence of his mind, 



(184) 



OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 

Objection. — The idea of ascribing different facul- 
ties to different parts of the brain is not new. Many 
authors did so before Dr. Gall ; but their systems 
have fallen into disrepute, which proves that the doc- 
trine is not true. 

Answer. — Dr. Gall himself has called the atten- 
tion of philosophers to the fact, that the idea alluded 
to is very old : he has given a history of previous opin- 
ions concerning the functions of the brain } and shown, 
that different functions have been attributed to differ- 
ent parts of it for centuries past, while he has assigned 
reasons for these ideas falling into oblivion. Dr. Spurz- 
heim, in his works, does the same ; and, in the Phre- 
nological Journal, No. VII. Art. 8. ' An Historical 
Notice of early Opinions concerning the Brain ' is giv- 
en, accompanied with a plate of the head, showing it 
marked out into different organs in 1562. The differ- 
ence, however, between the mode of proceeding of 
prior authors and that of Dr. Gall, is so great, that 
different results are accounted for. Former specula- 
tors assigned to certain mental faculties local situations 
in the brain, on account of the supposed aptitude of 
the place to the faculty. Common sense, for exam- 
ple, was placed in the forehead, because it was near 
the eyes and nose ; while memory was lodged in the 
cerebellum, because it lay, like a store-house, behind, 
fitted to receive and accommodate all kinds of know- 



OBJECTIONS TO PERENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 185 

ledge, till required to be brought forth for us. This 
was not philosophy. It was the human imagination 
constructing man, instead of the understanding observ- 
ing how the Creator had constituted him. Dr. Gall 
acted on differerent principles. He did not assume 
any mental faculties, and neither did he assign them 
habitations in the brain according to his fancy. On 
the contrary, he observed, first, The manifestations of 
mental talents and dispositions ; and, secondly, The 
form of brain which accompanied each of these when 
strong, and weak. He simply reported what Nature 
had dope. There is tfee same difference between his 
method of proceeding and that of prior authors, as be- 
tween that of Des Cartes and Newton ; and hence 
it is equally intelligible, why he should be successful in 
discovering truth, while they invented only ingenious 
errors. 

Objection. — It is ridiculous to suppose that the 
mind has thirty-five faculties : why not fifty-five ? or 
an hundred and five ? Besides, the phrenologists have 
been continually altering the number. 

Jlnswer* — As well may it be said to be absurd, that 
we should possess exactly five senses : why not ten, 
or fifteen ? The phrenologists deny all responsibility 
for the number of the faculties. They admit neither 
fewer, nor a greater number, than they find manifested 
in nature. Besides, authors on mental philosophy ad- 
mit as many, and some more, faculties than the phre- 
nologists. Lord Kames, for example, admits twenty 
of the phrenological faculties ; while Mr. Dugald 
16* 



186 OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 

Stewart, in his System, ascribes more faculties to 
the mind than are enumerated in the phrenological 
works. The increase of the number of the phreno- 
logical faculties is easily accounted for. It has invari- 
ably been stated, that the functions of certain portions 
of the brain remain to be discovered ; and, in propor- 
tion as this discovery proceeds, the list of mental pow- 
ers will necessarily be augmented. 

Objection. — ' On opening the skull, and examin- 
ing the brain towards the surface, where the organs 
are said to be situated, it seems to require no small 
share of creative fancy, to see any thing more than a 
number of almost similar convolutions, all composed 
of cineritious^and medullary substance, very nearly in 
the same proportions, and all exhibiting as little differ- 
ence in their form and structure as the convolutions of 
the intestine.' ' No phrenologist has ever yet observ- 
ed the supposed lines of distinction between them ; 
and no phrenologist, therefore, has ventured, in the 
course of his dissections, to divide a hemisphere of the 
brain accurately into any sue j number of well m rked 
and specific organs.' 

This objection was urged by the late Dr. John 
Barclay, and is answered at full length by Dr. A. 
Combe, in the Phrenological Transactions. A sum- 
mary only of his observations can be introduced here. 
First, Although the objection were literally true, it is 
not relevant ; because, it is an admitted principle of 
physiology, that the form and structure of an organ is 
not sufficient to convey an idea of its functions ; no 
man who saw an eye, an ear, or a nostril, for the first 



OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 187 

time, (supposing it were possible for a man to be so 
situated) could, merely by looking at it, infer its uses. 
The most expert anatomist had looked frequently and 
long upon a bundle of nervous fibres, inclosed in a 
common sheath, without discovering that one set of 
them was the organ of voluntary motion, and another 
that of feeling ; on the contrary, from their similarity 
of appearance, these nerves had, for ages, been re- 
garded as possessing similar functions. Nevertheless, 
Mr. C. Bell and Magendie have demonstrated, by 
experiment, that they possess the distinct functions of 
feeling and motion. Mr. Bell has, more recently, 
proved, that another nerve, the use of which nobody 
had conjectured from it structure, serves to convey to 
the brain, intimation of the state of the muscles ; so 
that there is now evidence of the muscular system be- 
ing supplied with three distinct sets of nerves, having 
separate functions, which was never conjectured from 
appearances. It may therefore competently be prov- 
ed, by observation, that different parts of the brain 
have distinct functions, although it were true that no 
difference of structure could be perceived. 

But, 2dly, It is not the fact that difference of ap- 
pearance is not discoverable. It is easy to distinguish 
the anterior, the middle, and posterior lobes of the 
human brain from each other ; and, were they shown 
separately to a skilful phrenological anatomist, he 
would never take one for the other. The mental 
manifestations are so different, according as one or 
other of these lobes predominate in size, that there is 
even in this case ample room for establishing the fun- 
damental proposition, that different faculties are con- 



188 OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 

nected with different parts of the brain. Farther, 
many of the organs differ so decidedly in appearance, 
that they could be pointed out by it alone. Dr. 
Spuhzheim says, that he 'should never confound the 
organ of ' Amativeness with that of Philoprogenitive- 
ness ; or Philoprogenitiveness with that of Secretiveness ; 
or the organ of the desire to acquire with that of Be- 
nevolence or feneration ; * and, after having seen Dr. 
Spurzheim's dissections of the brain, I bear my humble 
testimony to the truth of this assertion. Even an or- 
dinary observer, who takes a few good casts of the brain 
in his hand, may satisfy himself that the anterior lobe, 
for example, uniformly presents convolutions different 
in appearance, direction, and size from those of the 
middle lobe ; while the latter, towards the coronal 
surface, uniformly presents convolutions differing in 
appearance and direction from those of the posterior 
lobe ; and, above all, the cerebellum, or organ of 
Amativeness, is not only widely different in structure, 
but is separated by a strong membrane from all other 
organs, and can never be mistaken for any of them. 
Difference of appearance, therefore, being absolutely 
demonstrable, there is much better reason on the side 
of the Phrenologists for presuming difference of func- 
tion, than on that of the opponents for maintaining 
unity of function. 

Sdly, It is admitted that the organs are not perceiv- 
ed to be separated in the brain by strong lines of de- 
marcation ; but those persons who have either seen 
Dr. Spurzheim dissect the brain, or have attended 
minutely to its impressions on the skull, will. support 
me in testifying, that the forms of the organs are dis- 
tinguishable, and that the mapping out is founded in 



OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 189 

nature. To bring this to the test, the observer has on- 
ly to compare the appearance of particular organs in a 
state of large development, the surrounding organs 
being small, with the appearance when particular or- 
gans are small, and, the neighboring ones are large. 
The form is then distinctly visible. 

Objection. — All parts of the brain have been injur- 
ed or destroyed without the mental faculties being af- 
fected. 

Answer. — The assertion is denied: There is no 
philosophical evidence for it. The subject is discuss- 
ed at length by Dr. A. Combe, in the Phrenological 
Transactions, and in the i System of Phrenology.' 
The objection is now generally abandoned by persons 
who have considered the cases, with the answers to 
them. 

Objection. — The world has gone on well enough 
with the philosophy of mind it already possesses, which, 
besides, is consecrated by great and venerable names, 
while Phrenology has neither symmetry of structure, 
beauty of arrangement, nor the suffrages of the learn- 
ed to recommend it. Its votaries are all third-rate 
men — persons without scientific or philosophical rep- 
utations. They are not entitled, therefore, to chal- 
lenge the regard of those who have higher studies to 
occupy their attention. They complain that only rid- 
icule and abuse are directed against them, and that no 
one ventures to challenge their principles or refute 
their facts ; but they do not yet stand high enough in 



190 OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 

public esteem to give them a right to expect any other 
treatment. 

Answer, — The world has not gone on well enough 
without phrenology. A fierce and universal conflict 
of opinions is maintained on many important subjects 
connected with mind, which cannot be satisfactorily 
settled till the true philosophy of man shall be discov- 
ered and understood. Education and social institu- 
tions also, rest in many respects on imperfect founda- 
tions ; and, at the present moment, mankind require 
nothing more urgently than a sound, practical, and ra- 
tional system of mental philosophy. Moreover, phre- 
nology being a new science, it follows that men who 
possess reputation in physiology or mental philosophy 
would appear to lose rather than gain renown, were 
they to confess their present ignorance of the functions 
of the brain and the philosophy of mind, which is a 
necessary prelude to their adoption of phrenology ; 
and the subject does not lie directly in the department 
of other scientific men. In this manner it happens, 
oddly enough, that those who are most directly called 
upon by their situation to examine the science, are 
precisely those to whom its triumph would prove most 
humiliating. Locke humorously observes on a simi- 
lar occasion, ' Would it not be an insufferable thing 
for a learned professor, and that which his scarlet 
would blush at, to have his authority of forty years 
standing, wrought out of hard rock, Greek and Latin, 
with no small expense of time and candle, and con- 
firmed by general tradition and a reverend beard, in 
an instant overturned by an upstart novelist ? Can any 
one expect that he should be made to confess, that 



OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 191 

what he taught his scholars thirty years ago was all 
error and mistake, and that he sold them hard words 
at a very dear rate ? What probabilities, I say, are 
sufficient to prevail in such a case ? And who ever, 
by the most cogent argument, will be prevailed with 
to disrobe himself at once of all his old opinions and 
pretences to knowledge and learning, which with hard 
study he hath all his time been laboring for, and turn 
himself out stark-naked in quest of fresh notions? All 
the arguments that can be used will be as little able to 
prevail as the wind did with the traveller to part with 
his cloak, which he held only the faster. 5 * Human 
nature is the same now as in the days of Locke. 

There is, however, another answer to the present 
objection. Some individuals are born princes, dukes, 
or even field-marshals ; but I am not aware that it has 
yet been announced that any lady was delivered of a 
child of genius, or an infant of established reputation. 
These titles must be gained by the display of qualities 
which merit them ; but if an individual quit the beat- 
en track pursued by the philosophers of the day, and 
introduce any discovery, although equally stupendous 
and new, his reputation is necessarily involved in its 
merits ? Harvey was not a great man before he dis- 
covered the circulation of the blood, but became such 
in consequence of having done so. What was Shak- 
speare before the magnificence of his genius was 
justly appreciated ? The author of Kenilworth rep- 
resents him attending as an humble and comparatively 
obscure suitor at the court of Queen Elizabeth, and 

* Book iv. c. 20, sect. 11. 



192 OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 

receiving a mark of favor in an c Ah ! Will Shakspeare, 
are you there ?' And he most appropriately remarks, 
that here the immortal paid homage to the mortal. 
Who would now exchange the greatness of Shak- 
speare for the splendor of the proudest lord that bow- 
ed before the Maiden Queen ? Or, let us imagine 
Galileo, such as he was in reality, a feeble old man, 
humble in rank, destitute of political influence, unpro- 
tected by the countenance or alliance of the great, 
poor, in short, in every thing except the splendid gifts 
of a profound, original, and comprehensive genius — 
and conceive him placed at the bar of the Roman 
pontiff, and the seven cardinals, men terrible in power, 
invested with authority to torture and kill in this world, 
and, as was then believed, to damn through eternity; 
men magnificent in wealth, and arrogant in the imagi- 
nary possession of all the wisdom of their age — and 
let us say who was then great in reputation — Gali- 
leo or his judges? But who is now the idol of pos- 
terity — the old man or his persecutors ? The case 
will be the same with Gall. If his discoveries of the 
functions of the brain, and of the philosophy of the 
mind, stand the test of examination, and prove to be a 
correct interpretation of nature, they will surpass, in 
substantial importance to mankind, the discoveries even 
of Harvey, Newton, and Galileo ; and this age 
will in consequence be rendered more illustrious by 
the introduction of phrenology, than by the victories of 
Bonaparte or Wellington. Finally, the assertion 
that no men of note have embraced phrenology, is not 
supported by fact. The lists of the members of the 
Phrenological Societies of Paris, London, Edinburgh, 



OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 193 

and various towns in the United States, furnish a refu- 
tation of the charge. Besides, the writings of the 
phrenologists will bear a comparison in point of skill, 
extent of information, correctness of logic, and pro- 
fundity of thought, with those of the most eminent of 
their opponents. 

Objection. — All the disciples of phrenology are 
persons ignorant of anatomy and physiology. They 
delude lawyers, divines, and merchants, who know 
nothing about the brain ; but all medical men, and es- 
pecially teachers of anatomy, are so well aware of the 
fallacy of their doctrines, that no impression is made 
on them. They laugh at the discoveries, as dreams. 

Answer. — This objection, like many others, is re- 
markable more for boldness than truth. For my 
own part, before adopting phrenology, I saw Dr. Barc- 
lay, and other anatomical professors, dissect the brain 
repeatedly, and heard them declare its functions to be 
an enigma, and acknowledge that their whole informa- 
tion concerning it consisted of ' names without mean- 
ing.' It is acknowledged in No. 94 of the Edinburgh 
Review, p. 447, that the functions of the brain are un- 
known to anatomists, and that their mode of dissecting 
it is absurd. The circumstance, therefore, puts the 
whole faculty, who have not studied phrenolopcally, 
completely out of the field as authorities. The fact, 
however is the very reverse of what is here stated. 
Drs. Gall and Spurzheim are now pretty generally ad- 
mitted to have been admirable anatomists of the brain, 
even by those who disavow their physiology ; Dr. Vi- 
mont of Paris is a first-rate comparative anatomist ; 
17 



194 OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 

and in the lists of the Phrenological Societies, there 
are doctors in medicine and surgeons, in a proportion 
considerably larger than that of the medical profession 
to society in general. The leading medical journals 
also have adopted phrenology as true. 

Objection. — 'It is inconceivable, that, after the 
discovery was made, there should be any body who 
could pretend to doubt of its reality. The means of 
verifying it, one would think, must have been such as 
not to leave a pretext for the slightest hesitation ; and 
the fact that, after twenty years preaching in its favor, 
it is far more generally rejected than believed, might 
seem to afford pretty conclusive evidence against the 
possibility of its truth.' 

Answer. — Mr. Playfair, in his ' Dissertation/ pre- 
fixed to the Supplement of the Encyclopaedia Britan- 
nica, observes : -— - ' It must not be supposed that so 
great a revolution in science as that which was made by 
the new analysis, (by Newton,) could be brought 
about entirely without opposition, as in every society 
there are some who think themselves interested to 
maintain things in the condition wherein they have 
found thern. The considerations are indeed sufficiently 
obvious, which, in the moral and political world, tend 
to produce this effect, and to give a stability to human 
institutions often so little proportionate to their real 
value, or to their general utility. Even in matters 
purely intellectual, and in which the abstract truths of 
arithmetic and geometry seem alone concerned, the 
prejudices, the selfishness, or the vanity of those who 
pursue them, not unfrequently combine to resist im- 
provement, and often engage no inconsiderable degree 



OBJECTIONS TO PHRENOLOGY CONSIDERED. 195 

of talent in drawing back, instead of pushing forward, 
the machine of science. The introduction of methods 
entirely new must often change the relative place of 
the men engaged in scientific pursuits, and must oblige 
many, after descending from the stations they formerly 
occupied, to take a lower position in the scale of intel- 
lectual improvement. The enmity of such men, if 
they be not animated by a spirit of real candor and the 
love of truth, is likely to be directed against methods 
by which their vanity is mortified and their importance 
lessened.' — Dissertations, Part II. p. 27. 

Mr. Playfair, again, speaking of the discoveries of 
Newton in regard to the composition of light, says, 
1 But all were not equally candid with the Dutch phi- 
losopher, (Huygens,) and though the discovery now 
communicated had every thing to recommend it which 
can arise from what is great, new, and singular ; though 
k w T as not a theory or system of opinions, but the gen- 
eralization of facts made known by experiments; and 
though it was brought forward in a most simple and 
unpretending form, — a host of enemies appeared, each 
eager to obtain the unfortunate pre-eminence of being 
the first to attack conclusions which the unanimous 
voice of posterity was to confirm.' — p. 56. ' Among 
them, one of the first was Father Pardies, who wrote 
against the experiments, and what he was pleased to 
call the hypothesis of Newton. A satisfactory and 
calm reply convinced him of his mistake, which he had 
the candor very readily to acknowledge. A country- 
man of his, Mariotte, was more difficult to be recon- 
ciled, and, though very conversant with experiments, 
appears never to have scuceeded in repeating the ex- 
periment of Newton. 5 — lb. p. 57. 



196 NUMERATIONS OF THE ORGANS. 

These observations are completely applicable to the 
case of phrenology. The discovery is new, important, 
and widely at variance with the prevailing opinions of 
the present generation ; and its reception and progress 
have been precisely such as any sensible person, ac- 
quainted with the history of science, would have antici- 
pated. ' The discoverer of the circulation of the 
blood,' says the Edinburgh Review,* — 6 a discovery 
which, if measured by its consequences on physiology 
and medicine, was the greatest ever made since physic 
was cultivated, suffers no diminution of his reputation 
in our day, from the incredulity with which his doctrine 
was received by some, the effrontery with which it was 
claimed by others, or the knavery with which it was 
attributed to former physiologists, by those who could 
not deny, and would not praise it. The very names 
of these envious and dishonest enemies of Harvey are 
scarcely remembered ; and the honor of this great 
discovery now rests, beyond all dispute, with the great 
philosopher who made it.' Posterity will pass a simi- 
lar judgment on Dr. Gall and his opponents. 



ON DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATIONS AND NUMERATIONS 
OF THE ORGANS. 

The organs are arranged and numbered in this 
work, according to the order adopted in Dr. Spurz- 

* No. XCIV. p, 76. The article quoted in the text is < On the 
Nervous System ; and the names of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim 
are not mentioned in it, from beginning to end. The author there- 
fore exemplifies the injustice he so eloquently condemns. 



NUMERATIONS OF THE ORGANS. 197 

heim's Outlines of Phrenology, published in 1827 
The principle of that arrangement was, as far as possi- 
ble, philosophical. The organs common to man and 
the lower animals come first, beginning with the lowest, 
and ascending. The organs of the moral sentiments 
are next treated of; and, lastly, the organs of intellect. 
The abrupt transition from the organ of Cautiousness 
to that of Benevolence, arises from the la ter being 
found in the brains of the lower animals, and belonging 
to the class common to them and man ; whereas the 
convolutions which constitute the whole intermediate 
organs, or those of the sentiments proper to man, viz. 
Veneration, Hope, Ideality, and Conscientiousness, are 
not observed in the brutes. This arrangement is 
founded on the anatomy of the brain. The organs 
classed together are evidently connected in structure. 
It was the demonstration of this fact by Dr. Spurzheim, 
in his visit to Edinburgh in 1828, that induced me to 
adopt his alterations ; for, in the previous editions of 
this work, T followed his classification of 1815. The 
arrangement is not yet represented as perfect, but only 
as improved. 

Dr. Gall, appears not to adopt any philosophical 
principle in his arrangement of the organs ; but it is 
proper that his order should be known ; and it is given 
below. For the accommodation of persons who pos- 
sess busts, marked according to the previous classifica- 
tion, it also is subjoined. 
17* 



(198) 



Names and Orders of the Organs adopted by Dr • 

Gall. 



No. 
1. 


French. 


German. 


English 
Names given by 
Dr. Spurzheim. 


Instinct de la ge- 
neration. 


Zeugungstrieb. 


Amativeness. 


2. 


Amour de la pro- 
geniture. 


Jungenliebe / 
Kinderliebe. 


Philoprogeni- 
tiveness. 


3. 


Attach ement, 
amitie. 




Adhesiveness. 


4. 


Instinct de la de- 
fense de soi- 
m6me et de sa 
propriety. 


Muth, Raufsinn. 


Combativeness. 


5. 


Instinct carnas- 
sier. 


Wurgsinn. 


Destructiveness. 


6. 


Ruse, finesse, sa- 
voir-faire. 


List, Schlauheit, 
Klugheito 


Secretiveness. 


7. 


Sentiment de la 
propriete. 


Eigenthurnsinn. 


Acquisitiveness. 


8. 


Orgueil, fierte, 
hauteur. 


Stolz, Hoeh- 
muth, Hersch- 
sucht. 


Self-Esteem. 


9. 


Vanite, ambition, 
amour de la 
gloire. 


Eitelkeit,Ruhm- 
sucht, Ehrgeitz. 


Love of Appro- 
bation. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



199 



No 



10. 



11 



12. 



13. 



14. 



15. 



16. 



17. 



French. 



Cireonspection, 
prevoyance. 



Memoire des 
choses, memoire 
des faits sens 
des chose 5 edu- 
eabilite perfec- 
tibilite. 

Sens des locali- 
tes, sens des 
rapports de P- 
espace. 

Memoire des 
personnes, sens 
des personnes. 

Sens des mots, 
sensdesnoms, 
memoire des 
mots,memoire 
verbale. 

Sens de langage 
de parole, ta- 
lent de la phi- 
lologie, &c. 

Sens des rapports 
des coulers, 
talent de la 
peinture. 

Sens des rapports 
des tons, talent 
de la musique. 



German. 



Behutsamkeit, 
Vorsicht, Vor- 
sichtigkeit. 

Sachgedcecht- 
niss, Erzie- 
hungs-Fcehig- 
keit. 



Ortsinn, Raum- 
sinn. 



Personen-sinn. 



Wort-Gedcech- 
niss. 



Sprach-For- 
schungs-sinn. 



Farben-sinn. 



Ton-sinn. 



English 
Names given by 
Dr. Spurzheim. 



Cautiousness. 



Eventuality. 



Locality. 



Form. 



Language. 



Held by Dr. 
Spurzheim to 
be included in 
the last organ. 

Coloring. 



Tune. 



200 



OF ORGANS. 



No 
IS. 


French. 


German. 


,., English 
Names given by 
Dr Spurzheim. 


Sens des rapports 
des nombres. 


. 


Number. 


19. 


Sens de mecha- 
niqne, sens de 
construction, 
talent de I'ar- 
chitectnre. 


Kunst-sinn, 
Bausinn. 


Constructive- 
ness. 


20. 


Sagacite compa- 
rative. 


Vergleichender- 
scharfsinn. 


Comparison, 


81. 


Esprit m eta phy- 
sique, profon- 
deur d'esprit. 


Metaphysischer- 
Tiefsinn. 


Causality. 


22. 


Esprit caustique, 
esprit de saiiiie. 


Witz. 


Wit. 


23. 


Talent poetique. 


Dichter-Geist. 


Ideality. 


24. 


Bonte bienveil- 
lance, douceur, 
compassion, &c 


Gutmoethigkeit, 
Mitleiden, &c. 


Benevolence. 


25. 


Faculte d'imiter, 
mimique. 




Imitation. 


26' 


Sentiment relig- 
ieux. 




Veneration. 


27- 


Fermete con- 
stance perse- 
verance. 


I 


Firmness. 



Dr. Gall marks as unascertained several organs admitted by 
other Phrenologists. 



(201) 



Names and Orders of the Organs, according to the 
Classification in the Previous Editions of this 
Work. 

Order I. — FEELINGS. 

Genus I. — Propensities. 

1. Amativeness. 6. Destructiveness. 

2. Philoprogenitiveness. Alimentiveness. 

3. Concentrativeness. 7. Secretiveness. 

4. Adhesiveness. 8. Acquisitiveness. 

5. Combativeness. 9. Constructiveness. 

Genus II. — Sentiments. 

1. Sentiments common to Man and the Lower .Animals. 

10. Self-Esteem. 12. Cautiousness. 

11. Love of Approbation. 13. Benevolence. 

2. Sentiments proper to Man. 

14. Veneration. 18. Wonder, 

15. Firmness. 19. Ideality. 

16. Conscientiousness. 20. Wit or Mirthfulness. 

17. Hope. 21. Imitation. 



Order II. ^-INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 

Genus I. — External Senses. 



Feeling or Touch. 


Hearing. 


Taste. 


Sight. 


Smell. 





202 



CLASSIFCATIONS OF ORGANS. 



Genus II. — Perceptive Faculties. 

28. Number. 

29. Order. 



22. Individuality. 

23. Form. 

24. Size. 

25. Weight or Resistance, 

26. Coloring. 

27. Locality. 



30. Eventuality. 

31. Time. 

32. Tune. 

33. Language. 



Genus III. — Reflecting Faculties. 
34. Comparison. 35. Causality, 









\'V> 



A 



(203) 



DESCRIPTION OF CRANIOMETER. 

Figure 1st represents a pair of Callipers. The 
numerals on the scale represent the width from point 
to point, when they are open. They are useful for 
ascertaining the general size of the head, as mention- 
ed on p. 162. The legs are sometimes made to un- 
screw at AA, and fitted with hinges at BB, and the in- 
strument can then be put into a small case, and carried 
in the pocket. The ball C is for inserting into the or- 
ifice of the ear, in taking measurements from it to dif- 
ferent points of the head. 

Figure 2d represents a Craniometer, invented by 
Mr. Robert Ellis and Mr. William Gray, and ap- 
proved of, in its present form, by the Phrenological 
Society. The object of it is to measure the length 
from the medulla oblongata, or top of the spinal mar- 
row, where each organ originates, to the point where 
it reaches the surface of the brain. The rods BB are 
moveable, and ihe balls (made of ivory or brass,) on 
the inner ends of them, go into the external opening 
of the ear. The point A is the middle of the axis 
which would be formed by the prolongation of these 
rods; and it coincides, not exactly, but pretty nearly 
with the middle of the medulla oblongata. The rods 
must be inserted to equal depths into the ears, other- 
wise the centre A would not coincide with the middle 
of the axis in the head. The roads are graduated, to 
secure accuracy in this respect. C, C, C, is an exact 



204 DESCRIPTION OF CRANIOMETER. 

semicircle (made of steel or double plates of tin,) of 
which A is the centre. DE is an index, intended to 
measure distances from A. To construct it accurately, 
make the end D touch A, and the other end coincide 
with every part of the circumference of the semicir- 
cle. When drawn out, the end E rises as far above 
the circumference as the end D recedes from the 
point A. The index is graduated, beginning at the 
top, and the lengths are read off as they appear on the 
projecting part. 

Figure 3d represents the craniometer applied. The 
semicircle moves backwards and forwards on the axis, 
B, B, and the index may be moved from right to left 
along the circumference. To keep the index always 
pointing to A, it is made to slide in a piece of wood F, 
Figure 4, the sides of a groove of which form a seg- 
ment of a circle, coinciding with, and applied to, the 
circumference of the semicircle. 

This instrument measures only the length of the or- 
gans. Their breadth is judged of by their expansion 
at the surface ; and the two dimensions give their ab- 
solute size. It has not come into general use. 

Mr. Henry Thompson has favored me with a 
drawing and relative explanation, calculated to repre- 
sent the effects of a number of the most frequent com- 
binations in size in a tabular form ; but the limits of 
this work prevent me laying it before the public. 



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